Desde las profundidades de California, estoy sentado entre diversas gentes,
quienes bailan, rien, y a traves del tiempo recorren los espacios de las calles
Grand y Broadway en Oakland.
Desde las profundidades de California, el misterio se acabo.
From the depths of California, the virgin copulated but was sacrificed in 1521.
The life instinct was interrupted by the Freudian death instinct.
From the depths of California, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna sold my soul.
From the depths of California, the gold rush is dead.
From the depths of California, Boyle Heights is not but a lie.
On this night we look towards Aztlan. Is it real?
From the depths of California, there lies a great mystery which has forever
consumed my soul and for the most part remains unaddressed.
From the depths of Fresno then, from the depths of the bleeding heart of
California, on this night I bring you the great Californian melodrama.
El misterio se acabo.
From the depths of California, the yin and the yang do not form the Tao
but are contradictory by nature.
From the depths of California, Yosemite and
the prison industrial complex coexist.
From the depths of California, Big Sur is on the 1 and Soledad State Prison
is parallel on the 101.
Donde esta esa verdad que penetraba por la tierra de los ancestros?
Ahora no tenemos tierra y campo pero tenemos callejones, islas y prisiones.
Atravesando entre y afuera de la distancia, mi historia es una discontinuidad.
Me encuentro afuera del centro de mi historia desde las profundidades
de California.
Thus, from the depths of California, Chican@s bleed its contradictory truth.
And as I jot this sentiment, I realize my history has distanced itself from me.
*****
Contact Jonathan Luevanos Felix at jluevanosfelix@gmail.com.
Edited by Richard Stone
Jonathan Luevanos Felix has become a regular contributor to the Community Alliance, commenting in both poetry and prose on the contradictions of being steeped in two cultures, and the political circumstances that make the situation painful instead of interesting.
