History was passionately shared when a group of 33 on-campus creatives gathered in El Centro to partake in pupusas, poetry and powerful storytelling last week.
Rachelle Escamilla, Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB) professor of public speaking, creative writing and poetry and Monterey County’s current poet laureate, opened the night.
“I think that it’s our job as academics for us to dig up what people don’t have access to through using the library and the archives,” Escamilla said. “This is an important part of being an academic and a Latino for me.”
Escamilla then dove into a personal story about her grandfather’s experience as a bracero: a Spanish-term meaning “one who works with his arms” that refers to a past labor agreement allowing Mexican laborers to work in U.S. agricultural and railroad industries. Escamilla’s grandfather also helped sue the USDA for not enacting benefits very similar to today’s SNAP benefits.
“Him and the other guy that were named in the lawsuit did get beat pretty severely regularly for having sued the USDA, but they did win the case,” Escamilla said. “Apparently my grandfather’s work is foundational to food justice in the United States. The point is not to say that ‘I’m standing here as a representation of that legacy,’ but that you all have something like that in your families…it’s hidden in the archives, you have to dig for it.”
Escamilla shared where she found inspiration for a few of her own poems, most of which stemmed from more discoveries in her own family heritage.
“If you know the tropes of Chicano culture then you are familiar with a few of our female tropes that reappear in our literary mythology and culture. La Llorona, is a woman that cries by bodies of water, and if you are a human and bring your babies by a body of water, she will drag their bodies down into the water and to the pits of hell,” Escamilla said, sharing a little historical context with the crowd before reading her interpretation of this literary character.
Escamilla read a final and more recent poem of hers, “I did a poetry reading at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in front of the kelp forest, and I was reading my poetry to a bunch of teachers…it was a really fun and special night.” Her piece spoke on the nature along our coast line, making frequent metaphors about moon jellies.
Before passing the torch to the students to read their works, Escamilla facilitated a question and answer segment for the audience to ask her about her published works. After, a number of students bravely took to the center of the full room to read their own works of poetry. The pieces ranged from centering around love, to death and loss, their mothers and their own heritage and familial culture.
Bianca Valencia, a fourth year psychology major, said, “I started here [El Centro] August 2024 and since then we’ve hosted this event three times, but I know it had already been a recurring event before my time as part of El Centro. We do try and change it up a bit, we used to do Pozole and Poetry, but the pupusas were a huge hit last semester so we decided to bring them back!”
“I think it was a good turnout, I really enjoyed hearing the students share too. It felt really engaging,” Valencia said. “Honestly I like when we are in smaller spaces like this because it gives a community feeling, when we are in bigger spaces it doesn’t feel as intimate.”