Beyond the Page: Poetry and Performance in Spanish America

Appendix: “TwoMilMex”

145 TwoMilMex I know that you do not have a definite form Yet I know that you lie between the Rio Bravo and the Usumacinta1 Between the Pacific and the Gulf petroleum and all I know that you are covered in gold and silver and snow with trash with shaved ice, vol-au-vents,2 Verse-makers of Rapantla, braids, hustlers, trucks few grants given by the FONCA,3 Hero pirates made in China, gangsters, microbus drivers, Chichimecs,4 warriors, garnachas,5 ski masks, ataris, bearings and chrysanthemums// I know you have a—zures, ambers, greens, reds, similares,6 joaquins, joses, marias, juanes, López, Pérez, Martínez, Beltranes, Pemex, Cemex, 1. Rivers separating Mexico from the United States and Guatemala, respectively. 2. A Mexican puff pastry of French origin. 3. Acronym for the National Fund for Culture and Arts. 4. The Aztecs called the nomadic tribes of present-day central Mexico and the US Southwest “chichimecas.” 5. Mexican dish made of fried corn dough and topped with meat, beans, cheese, and salsa. 6. “Farmacias Similares” is the name of a drugstore chain selling generic medications. Appendix “TwoMilMex” 146 · Appendix Jumex,7 you have beards, ruins, ruffians, ceramic frogs cheap cheap, plums, apricots, cantaloupes and watermelons let it rain let it rain,8 wetbacks, paid protesters, insurgents, kidnapping victims, rich people, proletariats, centenarians, retirees, detainees , medalists, footballers, baseballers, little peas,9 tomatoes, onions, nenepil,10 brisket, metro, buy it! buy it! coral snakes, rattlers, brown sugar loaves, saint Charbel,11 Teresa Urrea,12 ritual specialists, metallers, roads, “The Disobedient Son,” “The Sinaloan,”13 pot holes, tripe, nana14 and parsley, public universities, privates, Otomies,15 armadillos kukulcans,16 leather cowgirls and Guelaguetzas,17 snappers, chiles in walnut sauce, Saint Isidores, Sor Juana,18 preschool migrants, sotol,19 mole lizards, agaves and cathedrals / Huichols, Tzotzils,20 muxes,21 machos, gigolos, Mixtecs, gringos, maras,22 moors, walls, chicks, hills, bus drivers, chipotle, moon flowers, tehuanas,23 peanuts, bread pudding pit barbecue, Mennonites, whales, dark-skinned-Nazis, monarch butterflies, candied pumpkin, 7. Three companies: Mexican Petroleum, Mexican Cement, and a Mexican juice brand. 8. Line from the children’s song “La víbora de la mar” [The sea snake]. 9. “Chicharito,” or little pea, is the nickname for the famous Mexican football player Javier Hernández Balcázar. 10. Taco filling made of stomach and uterus. 11. Patron saint of the ill. 12. Faith healer turned folk-saint of northern Mexico and the US Southwest. 13. Song titles. 14. Taco filling made of uterus. 15. Indigenous community of east-central Mexico. 16. Kukulcan, a Maya deity. 17. Annual folk-dance festival in the state of Oaxaca. 18. Intellectual nun who lived in seventeenth-century Mexico. 19. A traditional alcoholic beverage. 20. Indigenous communities of the central states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango and Chiapas, respectively. 21. In Zapotec communities of Oaxaca, muxes are biological males who dress and act like women. 22. Members of the Salvadoran gang “La Mara Salvatrucha.” 23. Women of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, known for their costumes. “TwoMilMex” · 147 ravines, pigs’ feet tostadas, trains, woodpeckers, sapote fruit, agave nectar / I also know you have Nahuas,24 mambo, techno, Mayos,25 rumba, salsa, mole, Mayas, bamba, samba, cassava, coconut, Tojolabales,26 brothels, swamps, quetzals, the Chontals / Zempoala,27 chiclets, Cacomixtle, Atzcapotzalco, Poza Rica, cream, Zapotlan, Chocolate, Chava Flores,28 Mexicali, Tzin Tzun Tzan29 chipi chipi, The Piporro, José Alfredo,30 Juanga, Chalino, Chente, Armando31 Comala, Hidalgo, Huapango, chito,32 Catemaco, Guanajuato,33 line 2, line 3, line 4, the pug-nosed, the darkies, shorties, gangsters, kingpins, toads of the Jicuri-Parangaricutiri-Raramurira-Ikikunari,34 asphalt, marbles, jacks, Real del Catorce, Olmec heads, Goya Goya35 Goya and Goya, / Pepsicoatl, Peyote, Ecatepunk,36 The Sierra Gorda, Santa Rosa, Anarcocumbia,37 Nezayork,38 CalakMUL,39 Band music of Iztapalapa, The Nine Guardians, Rockma District, Xitle,40 Ixtle,41 chili, Chiapas, Cuatilicue Choper, pistachio, red currant, Pitahaya, Tijuana, 24. Indigenous communities residing primarily in central Mexico. 25. Indigenous communities of Sonora and Sinaloa. 26. Indigenous community of Chiapas. 27. Archaeological site in the state of Veracruz; also, a group of lagoons in the state of Jalisco. 28. Singer-songwriter. 29. Town in the state of Michoacán. 30. Singer-songwriters Eulalio “El Piporro” González and José Alfredo Jiménez. 31. Singer-songwriters Juan Gabriel, Chalino Sánchez, Vicente “Chente” Fernández, and Armando Manzanero. 32. Dried strips of meat covered in chili...