Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

marilynn
Orange County poet and activist Marilynn Montaño’s poem His Machucada Hands is a “testament to the ways that being undocumented has taken a physical toll on her father’s body. The title, she said, came from noticing his hands on the steering wheel every morning as he drove her to middle and high school,” according to the PBS News Hour.

Mas…Marilynn Montaño is embedded in her migrant father’s rough hands

Taco Bell plans poetry-grilled ‘Verso-Quesarito-Burrito’

elpoetryburrito(PNS reporting from CHICAGO) Cheesy burrito fans and hashtag activists, your prayers have been answered! Taco Bell will debut a new menu item Monday – the Verso-Quesarito-Burrito, a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla with Mexican poetry written on the tortilla.

The VQB is a ground “beef” burrito with rice, chipotle sauce and reduced-fat sour cream in a grilled quesadilla full of melted American cheese.

You can also order the quesadilla-burrito hybrid with shredded chicken or steak. As an added bonus, the Verso-Quesarito-Burrito will feature poems written on the tortilla by Mexican day laborers. They’ll be versifying using only gluten-free ink, of course (photo.)

Mas…Taco Bell plans poetry-grilled ‘Verso-Quesarito-Burrito’

Lord Buckley’s ‘Scrooge, a hip Christmas carol’ from 1959 (video)


It’s 1959 and hepcat supreme Lord Buckley is on fire: “Yes, me, I’m Scrooge and I got all Marley’s barley, and I’m the baddest cat in all dis world. I been studyin’ all my life how to Scrooge people, and I guarantee I done some fine work in dat direction. Cratchit!”

“Yes, sir.”

“You busy?”

“I shorely is, sir.”

“See dat you keep busy. Don’t want no danglin’ wanglin’ around here. Keep everybody tight. And tell dem two cats come in here want to get some money I ain’t givin’ no money away. Dey messin’ wit Scrooge. I’m takin’ it in. I ain’t puttin’ it out. Issat clear?”

California’s new official poetry man is Juan Felipe Herrera (video)


Gov. Jerry Brown has sworn in UC Riverside professor Juan Felipe Herrera as California’s Poet Laureate — the first Chicano to get the honor. In this video, Herrera reads his poem 187 reasons Mexicanos can’t cross the border. The poem illustrates the difference between Jerry Brown’s California and Jan Brewer’s Hate State of Arizona, where Mexican-American Studies are outlawed. Cali isn’t perfect, but at least we know where we came from.