Ouside Reading #2

Herrera continues in his book to describe the lives of latinos coming to America. After describing the exiles of the Chicanos he moves on into his next section, focused on smaller aspects of everday life. He mentions how he just decided to walk around town and write things down, taking in everything around him. He talks about a necklace he once wore walking down the street and they way people reacted. He said, "I carry a dark necklace around my neck. It's painted on. No one has taken notice" (43). He then goes on and explains how it was once his grandmother's and wearing keeps her voice with him. He brings out how what is insignificant to one person is a jewel to the next. His next section seems much more melancholy and dark. It seems to focus on the unpleasant yet true details of life. He writes, "...honking horns that smear shade over a madhouse of hummingbirds and you're lost in thesters of tangled legs your stokcings running branches of spit and smoke in the bellies of black ballerines" (59). He seems to capture emotions that we all experience but are unable to explain. His dark tones almost create a scared and hectic feeling. Several poems in this section are written in both english and spanish which gives way to the idea that everyone is feeling it, not just the latinos in exile.

I think this relates to what we are studying right now because of the hardship everyone faces. I think Herrera does really good job of showing how no one group of people is alone in their troubles. We all relate is some of the trails we face everyday. In the King Lear characters are faced with many difficult situations. King Lear goes mad, Cordelia has to deal with her sisters and father, supporters of the king don't know what to do, eyes get gouged out, and people get stabbed. Life isn't easy for anyone and it's amazing how Herrera can describe life in such beautiful ways in one section and then is such scurrying, crazy ways soon after.I think that he is an incredible author and his poems do what he intends them to.

Herrera, Jaun Felipe. All of the World in Light. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 2008.

Outside Reading #1

My book is called All of the World in Light by Juan Felipe Herrera. It is a collection of poems about Latinos in America. It's really cool because he very vividly describes the life of Latin Americans. You begin to feel what their culture is like and just what life is like for them. In his first poem A Certain Man he describes how life is for a man including what he eats, what he does and what he thinks. Herrera writes "Inside his stomach roast meat..." (Herrera 3). This minor detail about his life really helps develop a lifestyle and makes the reader feel like they know him. It makes eating roast meat seem like a very common thing. Herrera goes on to explain the exile of these Latins coming to America. What I think is really cool is how he then compares them to us and questions where our exile is. Why haven't we had one and they have? It's a beautiful poem describing their entrance into America and how we watch. In the prospective of a non-Latino he writes, "From here we see them, we the ones from here, not there or across, only here, without the bridge..." (Herrera 23). He connects all of us saying we are all the same. We are not from different places having just made a difficult pilgrimage. He explains the details of being on a boat ad entering a world unknown and also describes the details of simply watching it all happen.
I think what Herrera writes is very deep but in a cool way. He leaves some of his poems in spanish to really create the feeling of their culture. This is very different from what we have been looking at in the sense that we have been looking at plays about people who life in a city and have a king. One man to rule over them in a very classical way. This book is all about the new voyages to new places and starting new lives. The freedom to go where you want to but also the experiences you will face. I think the idea behind this book is really cool and the passion behind the poems is amazing.

Herrera, Jaun Felipe. All of the World in Light. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 2008.