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Bad Mexican, Bad American Book Review
15 Plays6 months ago
Get the book: Bad Mexican, Bad American
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Bye!
Introduction to December Podcast Series
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello beautiful people and welcome back to another installment of Growing with Sol. My name is Marisol Moran and I am a certified life coach specializing in self-esteem and confidence. And today I am so very happy that you are here joining me for the kickoff of my December podcast episodes. As you may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram especially, which I also do have an Instagram dedicated to the podcast.
00:00:32
Speaker
It's at Growing with Sol Pod that is Growing with Sol Pod. So definitely follow along on IG if you're not already.
Focus on Literature and Poetry
00:00:41
Speaker
But on IG, I did post that this month's episodes are going to be all literature-based love. So I'm going to be talking about poetry in this episode, which if you do not know, poetry, I would say, is maybe my second love. My first love, literally, is a fantasy, as that is what I
00:01:01
Speaker
read my entire life. And then as I got older, I kind of started to dive into poetry a bit more. And not that writing poetry is easy, but for me, writing poetry comes more easily. Whereas I've tried to write prose, I've tried to write fiction, I've written short stories, I had to as a creative writing major.
00:01:23
Speaker
And it was a struggle. I was on the struggle bus trying to write poetry or trying to write prose. But poetry, it has its challenges. But I don't know. There's just something about poetry that is linked to my soul or something.
Life Coaching Services Highlight
00:01:39
Speaker
Anyway, in this episode I am going to be talking about poetry and about identity and culture and something that is very near and dear to my heart. One, academically because I was a cultural anthropology minor in college and also this is about Mexican-American culture and I happen to be Mexican-American.
00:01:58
Speaker
But before we get into all that, I do want to highlight that I as a certified life coach do take on clients and I am accepting new clients at the moment. So if you want to work on your relationship to self, if you want to build your self esteem and confidence, and even if it's confidence around a certain.
00:02:15
Speaker
aspect. I've worked with clients who were going to speak to their supervisors about getting a bonus for the year and we built confidence around that and it went well. So even if it's around a specific thing and not general confidence and you want to work on it definitely hit me up. I am taking on new clients so I'd be happy to hear from you.
Introduction to 'Bad Mexican, Bad American'
00:02:34
Speaker
Anyway to begin
00:02:37
Speaker
I'm going to be talking about Bad Mexican, Bad American, a Collection of Poetry by Jose Hernandez Diaz. And I, again, am excited to dive in. So let's get into it.
00:02:50
Speaker
So, Bad Mexican, Bad American is a book of poetry centered on the Mexican-American identity and experience, especially as it pertains to those who are from Southern California. It consists of a mixture of free verse and poetry. Jose Hernandez Diaz, the poet, in case, is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. His works have appeared in magazines, both American and international, and he is also the author of The Fire Eater and The Parachutist.
00:03:18
Speaker
Bad Mexican, Bad American is the first of his books that I personally have read. I actually found this book when I was at the LA Festival of Books and
00:03:29
Speaker
It just, it called to me. I kind of feel like if you are Mexican American and you see like this title, just the title in and of itself, you're like, yeah, like, yeah. Like, like I haven't read the book yet, but I get it. Like it makes sense. And I feel like that was very much my experience when I saw it. You know, I think it might've been, I think it might've been at the Romans, the Roman stand.
00:03:54
Speaker
But I saw it, I saw the title, it resonated with me and I had to have it. And in terms of key takeaways, so key takeaways about Bad Mexican, Bad American, first and foremost, in terms of my interpretation of the text, is that at the end of it all, well, before we get there, I definitely viewed this collection as
00:04:21
Speaker
Well, I viewed this work as a collection of experiences, as the narrator processing and going through a journey and processing his thoughts, his emotions, his experiences. You see the work as divided into four parts.
00:04:39
Speaker
And in each part, it shows a different stage of self-processing and processing the emotions and those experiences. And it's beautiful because many of the poems are written in a way where you're experiencing these moments with the narrator, and it's almost like you're there with him.
00:05:07
Speaker
I think one that pulls you in closer to the the story and it pulls you in closer into what the poet perhaps even is trying to get the reader to to see. So it kind of pulls you in where you're you're there living these moments with the narrator which ultimately I think as well as someone who is Mexican-American as myself when you're seeing
00:05:31
Speaker
the narrator go through these things and you're living these things through word with the narrator, you then can think back to experiences that you may have had that were very similar to what the narrator is going through. Ultimately, the key takeaway that I get from this book is that you will find peace, you will find acceptance at the end of the journey.
00:05:54
Speaker
And I think that's huge.
Themes of Cultural Identity in Poetry
00:05:56
Speaker
One, as a life coach, I feel like, and as someone who's in the healing space and what have you, personal development space, finding peace and acceptance is one of the most difficult things that we can do. And when you put that into the context of cultural identity and we put that into the context of
00:06:15
Speaker
belonging to two different places and belonging nowhere and trying to find peace and acceptance where there's this constant battle, this constant tension is almost an insurmountable feat. But I feel like at the end of this journey, we find a semblance of that.
00:06:35
Speaker
And I think that's beautiful. And I'm going to get into that a little bit more later into the podcast. As for the strengths of this book, now, like I mentioned, I do love me some poetry. So I am a little bit biased because I enjoy it. I enjoy poetry. And I just geeked out reading these poems because the topic at hand is near and dear to my heart. But as for the strengths,
00:07:04
Speaker
I think it captures so well this catch 22 that many Mexican Americans find themselves living in when it comes to like the context of the cultures that they're constantly maneuvering through. And especially when you're at the beginning stages of that journey and gaining that like consciousness of like
00:07:30
Speaker
I am these two things and I am also neither of these things. When you're starting to see that in real life, at least in my experience as well,
00:07:39
Speaker
It can feel almost as if you're like swinging from one end to the other. So if you were to see Mexican and American like on a spectrum, you're the little Mexican-American pendulum just like swinging back and forth. And you're never quite latching on to either side. You're just kind of constantly swinging back and forth. That sounds painful. Like, you know what kind of reminds me of that? Like, what's that like?
00:08:01
Speaker
I think they had that right at knots. We were just on the giant ships swinging back and forth. I hate roller coasters. I hate those things. So that just sounded very painful, which it can be a very painful experience when it comes to the cultural stuff to begin with. So I think it captures that really well because you see the narrator
00:08:18
Speaker
going through those emotions, especially in the way that it's divided into four segments. Overall, the work is divided in those four segments. So you can see how one segment is very much finding that connection to the Mexican side. And then you see also processing being in America and what that means, but also still kind of feeling like another. And it's great. The experience, not so much, but the poetry, the way that it's written here is. It's fantastic.
00:08:47
Speaker
And in terms of the swinging from side to side, we see in this work the mention of prominent Mexican figures, artists, writers. And then in contrast, like I was saying, we see the mention of white European figures and artists. And then we then contrast that with
00:09:08
Speaker
the narrator having these mundane experiences in America. And the poem Sunday Cruise comes to mind, which is one of those things that I feel like is quintessentially Chicano.
00:09:26
Speaker
which we're gonna get into a little bit too. Also, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, like I've done, I've talked about Chicanismo a little bit on the podcast before, but you can't talk about being Mexican-American without talking about Chicanismo. So I love that it was mentioned in this book. Anyway, before we get into my personal reflections and thoughts, I do want to talk about any possible weaknesses of this collection of poetry. And
00:09:56
Speaker
Mind you, I've only read this once. I did one read through and sometimes I feel like with, I mean probably with books in general but also with poetry, sometimes I feel as if you need to sit with it.
00:10:13
Speaker
Like you read it once, you sit with it, maybe go off and do other readings and then you can come back to it. So I feel like upon my first read through, there are no weaknesses per se. I do think that there were a few poems that I didn't see how they quite fit into the overall narrative and the overall experience of the collection.
00:10:38
Speaker
but caveat that could very easily just be my error, the reader error. And perhaps upon a second or third of read through, I most likely would come away with more insight or seem more cohesion amongst those things. And again, I definitely had to look up certain people because he does make references to certain writers and artists and things like that, people like that, that many of them I knew where they were.
00:11:07
Speaker
even if I wasn't like super like knowledgeable of all of their work and what have you but like I may have known who they were but there were other artists and writers that he mentioned that I had to look up and like okay like who was this person like why are they notable like why would they be in here and I did a
00:11:23
Speaker
Not a deep dive into who these people were, mind you. Like, I have a job. I have a life. And this isn't as much as I loved English class. This is not English class. So I didn't do a deep dive into who these people were. But I did look them up to see who they were. So maybe that might, you know, if I were to dive a little bit more deeply into these figures, it might give me a little bit more insight. But ultimately,
00:11:49
Speaker
upon the first read through, there were certain things where I was like, I'm not sure how this fits in. And maybe, again, that's reader error, not so much a weakness of the work, but that is in terms of if there is a weakness, that's what I saw. Now on to personal reflections and my personal thoughts on the book and
00:12:11
Speaker
essentially kind of like why I loved it, why I really enjoyed it and the experience of it.
Personal Reflection on Cultural Struggle
00:12:17
Speaker
I would say first and foremost,
00:12:21
Speaker
In a way, this book made me feel less alone. And I started off the podcast by saying, start off this episode by saying that as a Mexican-American, I would say we could see this book at the store and see the title and be like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yep, yep, yes. That makes sense without even having read it.
00:12:43
Speaker
And given that it is such a, I think, widely felt phenomenon, and I think even, again, with like other peoples as well, like I've heard Chinese Americans talk about feeling like, oh, okay, well,
00:13:00
Speaker
when I'm you know I'm not you know like I'm Chinese but I'm not Chinese and I'm like you know like you're not white so you're like you're not like American like I've heard other like kids of immigrants have this similar type of experience so I don't think it's solely a Latino or Mexican American thing but since is what we're talking about you know I do in terms of my own experiences and in communication and in conversation with other people who are the children of immigrants there's often this like
00:13:29
Speaker
but you're not Mexican because you're here like you're American like you were born here you were raised here like you're American obviously duh but then living in America you can't help but feel like the other especially as a Mexicano like because
00:13:45
Speaker
Just look at the news, look at politics, like who's the bad guy all the time? Who are the horrible, evil immigrants all the time? It's always the Mexicans. And granted, all the other Latinos get grouped in with us, yes. And racists, obviously, just like see a brown person, they're like, oh, bad Mexican. Like, so problematic on so many levels. So even if we were born and raised here and, you know, are American to be
00:14:16
Speaker
Mexican in America is a constant feeling of otherization. So hence that American and then your Mexican
00:14:28
Speaker
but you're not from Mexico. And then there's so much within that where there can be a lot of judgment from people who are from Mexico or like, say, family members who were born and raised in Mexico and they see you and they're like, ah, pues, y ares gallachos, y ares gringo, you are, you're American now, you're too American. And so it's just this constant pull and pull of you're too American for the Mexicans and too Mexican for the Americans.
00:14:56
Speaker
so you're shitty at being both and then let's say that you don't even speak Spanish which in this work he does talk about being a pocho and like being pocho comes up and not being able to speak Spanish comes up as well which is a huge part of this tension so
00:15:18
Speaker
All that to say is that in reading this, you know, there was a part of my life where I did kind of, I did find myself kind of like on that swing of like swinging back and forth of like Mexican versus American, Mexican versus American. So then seeing this as well, it's like somebody else went through something similar and I get to see what their journey was kind of like and it kind of made me feel a little less alone.
00:15:44
Speaker
Also, with that being said, the mention of a lot of Latino figures, and of course it was mentioned like Frida Kahlo and like other big figures as well, a lot of big artists as well that I think, especially within the Mexican-American experience, we tend to look at those figures as cultural
00:16:07
Speaker
cultural beacons almost like Frida Kahlo you see Frida Kahlo everywhere like you see like she has movies like you just see the unibrow and you know like so like these like cultural beacons that are utilized to like symbolize Mexican culture in a way and also utilized to be sort of
00:16:31
Speaker
connections into the rasa and into like our cultural identity like they're obviously not the end all be all of mexican culture but they're that bridge that as a mexican american sort of like brings us into our mexican identity in a way for a lot of people like you see these figures everywhere free that especially so the mention of them was sort of like a key like
00:16:54
Speaker
i see what you're doing like you're searching for your mexicanness so you're looking at popular mexican figures that people seem to like love and worship so you're just like you're trying to like latch onto that when you're swinging but it's not working and like i mentioned before the constant feeling of being like other because even in the works you see the narrator having these mundane experiences in america but there's still something so mexican about them
00:17:24
Speaker
And I say that also as someone who is born and raised in Los Angeles. Like when I mentioned the other poem, Sunday Cruise, like he's cruising. He's cruising down the street on a Sunday just being mad chill. And like that's just like cruising down with your boulevard. Like it's like a quintessential thing, you know? Like even though it's one of those things where it's so associated with
00:17:49
Speaker
within the geographical location of the United States, but still so Mexicano. And with that being said, the mention of El Chicano, which specifically in the books he mentioned, you know, the guy in the Chicano Batman t-shirt, which I absolutely love because one of the things I have always really enjoyed, one of the things I've always found really amusing, like ever since I was a little kid, when you would see
00:18:18
Speaker
Like a cartoon or like a prominent figure or something. Kind of like Batman. Super American, right? Like Batman's super American. Superman, very American. Star Wars stuff. Again, American. But then you would see it stylized to have like kind of like that Azteca like art style.
00:18:46
Speaker
And like I just I loved it so much because it was almost like I belong here too like this is also mine and it was something that is so so American but then also like we kind of put our pizzazz on it put like a little flick or our mistake our claim as well in a sense and like it a fun light-hearted way so you have someone in a Chicano Batman t-shirt and
00:19:11
Speaker
Like I want to see the teacher. I'm not a big Batman fan, but I'm kind of that kind of stuff, you know? And it's something that I saw growing up all the time, like going into shops or going into like bookstores or fairs. So seeing something that I mentioned in this book as well, I kind of like highlighted, brought me closer to the work as well.
Conclusion and Book Rating
00:19:29
Speaker
And then, like I mentioned at the end of that, like the acceptance that you see at the end of the book. So throughout the entire collection of poetry, you're seeing the narrator
00:19:39
Speaker
kind of like working and working and working like I am Mexican I'm not like I'm trying to be Mexican enough but I'm not Mexican enough I'm in the United States and I'm feeling otherwise all the time no matter what I'm doing it's just this constant tension this constant struggle and then finally at the end of the work there's this acceptance there's this piece there's this calm in the writing and I think that it's
00:20:03
Speaker
an important thing to take note of because even though when you look at the context of being Mexican-American, you look at the context of our world and it seems like no matter what there's always going to be this tension of not being Mexican enough for the Mexicans and not being American enough for the Americans and being able to find peace within yourself and oneness within yourself
00:20:31
Speaker
is such a beautiful thing and sometimes that acceptance is also just accepting that sometimes these things are going to be at odds and that's okay and maybe it's not going to be at odds for you maybe it's going to be something that other people don't quite understand maybe it's going to be something that the world is always going to view as not quite right
00:20:54
Speaker
But that doesn't mean that you're wrong. It doesn't make you any less American. It doesn't make you any less American. It doesn't make you any less Mexican, excuse me.
00:21:05
Speaker
I think being able to sit with that and see that and also begin the conversations of that as well is a huge, huge thing. And I'm very happy that I came across this book. I'm very happy that we can have these conversations as well, even on this platform. And if you like poetry, even if you don't like poetry, I think this is written in a very approachable way.
00:21:34
Speaker
Like we're talking about prose poetry here. Like, come on. I feel like prose poetry in and of itself is very approachable. And it's also free verse in prose poetry. So I feel like those are two very approachable styles. So definitely if poetry is not something you typically read, I do think this is going to be very accessible for you and even enjoyable for you.
00:21:57
Speaker
So definitely, definitely check this book out. I do recommend it. In terms of my final thoughts, again, like I've mentioned before, I do have a rating system. Instead of stars, I use solesitos because, oh, yo, eh? So how many solesitos on a scale of one to five would I give this book? After one read through, I give this book, Huatro Solesitos. That is four solesitos. And do I recommend this book? How can you just hear me say, yes, I definitely recommend this book.
00:22:24
Speaker
It's a small book, like how many pages are in here? I think it's like less than 100.
00:22:30
Speaker
I think we're at 72 pages in the copy that I have. So less than 100 pages. But again, it's poetry. You're not meant to speed read poetry. Please don't ever speed read poetry. You're going to miss something. But again, it's less than 100 pages. I think it is approachable. I think it is accessible if you're new to poetry. And if you are Chicano out there, Mexican-American, however you want to identify,
00:22:58
Speaker
This is going to speak to your heart. I really think it will. If you stay this long, I definitely, definitely appreciate you. If you are interested in getting the book, I will link it down below in the show notes. And if you are interested in coaching, I'll have a link in the show notes as well for that. And of course, as always, if you appreciated the episode, please give it a thumbs up.
00:23:19
Speaker
It really, really helps. If you've been liking the podcast, definitely leave a review. Tell me how much you love the podcast. Tell everybody how much you love the podcast. And as always, share this out. And don't forget to tag me at York Rich Muddy on IG, on threads, on TikTok. And yeah, I'll be seeing you in the next one.