Asina is How We Talk: Poemas. Edited by Eddie Vega
Asina is How We Talk is a collection of Tejano poetry written by 25 authors en la lengua de la gente that celebrates the pocho, mocho, Spanglish, Tejano, Tex-Mex lengua that the gente actually speaks. It is a fresh and tasty morsel of language activism, a defense of that nepantla of a borderland between two cultures, two languages, two nations, where even how we accent our words, which languages we speak, and whether those languages are allowed to consort with each other become a political, personal, and possibly confrontational action. An anthem of biculturalism, it fills our senses with the tastes and sounds of that cultural and linguistic mix where children of the Aztec Quinto Sol express their uniqueness and pride.
The poems are a direct guideline for survival, instructions for living, as a person negotiating spaces between traditional choices, between the accepted cultural images. But most importantly, this collection embraces and embodies the affirmation of joyful resistance that our code-switching native Tex-Mex represents, an aesthetic affirmation that regional language can be used as linguistic activism, as a documentation of our history, oppression, and survival.
Asina is How We Talk is an instrument of cultural survival, pride, and understanding, and a celebration of a dynamic translanguaging that brings laughter, growth, and healing. More importantly, the poems reflect best who we are, because Asina IS how we talk!
Carmen Tafolla, Professor Emerita, Bicultural Bilingual Studies University of Texas San Antonio State Poet Laureate of Texas 2015
Asina is How We Talk is a collection of Tejano poetry written by 25 authors en la lengua de la gente that celebrates the pocho, mocho, Spanglish, Tejano, Tex-Mex lengua that the gente actually speaks. It is a fresh and tasty morsel of language activism, a defense of that nepantla of a borderland between two cultures, two languages, two nations, where even how we accent our words, which languages we speak, and whether those languages are allowed to consort with each other become a political, personal, and possibly confrontational action. An anthem of biculturalism, it fills our senses with the tastes and sounds of that cultural and linguistic mix where children of the Aztec Quinto Sol express their uniqueness and pride.
The poems are a direct guideline for survival, instructions for living, as a person negotiating spaces between traditional choices, between the accepted cultural images. But most importantly, this collection embraces and embodies the affirmation of joyful resistance that our code-switching native Tex-Mex represents, an aesthetic affirmation that regional language can be used as linguistic activism, as a documentation of our history, oppression, and survival.
Asina is How We Talk is an instrument of cultural survival, pride, and understanding, and a celebration of a dynamic translanguaging that brings laughter, growth, and healing. More importantly, the poems reflect best who we are, because Asina IS how we talk!
Carmen Tafolla, Professor Emerita, Bicultural Bilingual Studies University of Texas San Antonio State Poet Laureate of Texas 2015
Asina is How We Talk is a collection of Tejano poetry written by 25 authors en la lengua de la gente that celebrates the pocho, mocho, Spanglish, Tejano, Tex-Mex lengua that the gente actually speaks. It is a fresh and tasty morsel of language activism, a defense of that nepantla of a borderland between two cultures, two languages, two nations, where even how we accent our words, which languages we speak, and whether those languages are allowed to consort with each other become a political, personal, and possibly confrontational action. An anthem of biculturalism, it fills our senses with the tastes and sounds of that cultural and linguistic mix where children of the Aztec Quinto Sol express their uniqueness and pride.
The poems are a direct guideline for survival, instructions for living, as a person negotiating spaces between traditional choices, between the accepted cultural images. But most importantly, this collection embraces and embodies the affirmation of joyful resistance that our code-switching native Tex-Mex represents, an aesthetic affirmation that regional language can be used as linguistic activism, as a documentation of our history, oppression, and survival.
Asina is How We Talk is an instrument of cultural survival, pride, and understanding, and a celebration of a dynamic translanguaging that brings laughter, growth, and healing. More importantly, the poems reflect best who we are, because Asina IS how we talk!
Carmen Tafolla, Professor Emerita, Bicultural Bilingual Studies University of Texas San Antonio State Poet Laureate of Texas 2015