Yerba Buena Poetry
April 11, 2018, by Kate
With this section’s reading revolving around poetry, it took me a little longer to fully read and comprehend each piece. Yet, a central theme of oppression and cultural pride remained strong throughout. What first stood out to me was how sad and depressing the first few poems were. “I Look For Peace Great Graveyard” openly states “new york spits in my eye” and “sometimes I want to die”. Esteves uses these pieces to juxtapose the romanticism of New York City. To her, New York is only idealized and magical for those who have privilege within it. She notes “manhattan isle of spit and hate/life times of tunnels/air stinking of humid grease/blinding glitter carrying a false name” to stress the lack of freedom and control she has as a Latina woman living in New York. These negative aspects don’t come to a positive fruition, as in the previous poem we discussed about Loisaida. They rest with the reader, and are forced to be acknowledged for what they are: oppressive living conditions.
Esteves continues to use her poems as a way to highlight prominent issues that still face New York today, such as police brutality, brutality, and oppression. “Some people are about jam” stuck out most to me, as it has clear parallels to brutality today. She shares that the man who would jam everyone, “now he doesn’t jam because he is dead”. Esteves doesn’t try to sugar coat or hide the fact that this man was killed for jamming, but states it point blank. She even shares that people now wear “printed pictures of him/jamming on tee shirts”. This poem alone made me sad to acknowledge the long history of police brutality and its exactly identical impact today. It seems as if nothing has changed since the creation of this poem, but new victims continue to be printed out on our shirts, names written on social media, and faces shown on the nightly news.
Yet, the piece that stuck out to me the most was “A la mujer Borrinqueña”. Esteves uses this piece to not only differentiate herself as a woman, but as a Latina woman. She quite clearly marks how she is strong and powerful, making this a particularly empowering piece to read. She shares that she “does not poison [her children’s] bellies with instant chemical foods”. Her relationship to her family is one of pride and joy, even as she mentions her time in the kitchen dedicated to preparing meals for her family. Instant dishes and shortcuts don’t work, but part of her strength lies in her dedicated to feeding her family. This concept of women in the kitchen especially interests me, as there’s such a fine line between women feeling oppressed in the kitchen or empowered by it. For Esteves, it’s the latter and part of what makes this poem so powerful. She claims this space as her own, and the ways in which she raises her children as important. Esteves also shares that she will “teach [her] children how to respect their bodies so they will not O.D. under the stairway’s shadow of shame”. While drugs and overdosing were prominent issues throughout this time in New York, she notes the importance of teaching our kids, and the future, a better way. This one poem brought out a lighter side to these difficult problems within New York, which is something that I really appreciated.