El Zarape Press
~Established 2004~
"We bring fresh voices to the literary conversation."
McAllen, TX 78504
Phone: (956) 358-7211
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We bring fresh voices . . .
. . . to the literary conversation.
Local author, teacher captures rhythm of local language
February 02,2007
Martin Winchester
Critic's Nook
The Monitor Newspaper McAllen, Texas
Daniel Garcia Ordaz may just be the voice of the Rio Grande Valley. He’s not on the radio, but his spoken word performances have been gaining a dedicated following for years. The McAllen Memorial High School English teacher and former journalist has a voice all his own, one that builds upon his upbringing here in the Valley. Now his words are in print, with the release of You Know What I’m Saying (El Zarape Press, $9).
"Since high school I have always needed to write, just as naturally as some people need to swing a bat or take a photograph once in a while," he said. A college professor gave him some encouragement, and Garcia soon found himself in front of an audience reading his work at the Lopez Bar in San Benito along with fellow Valley writers. It wasn’t long before local teachers invited him into their classrooms to read.
University of Texas-Pan American professor Debbie Cole recalls, "During Daniel’s visit, my usually sleep-after-lunch students were laughing, telling personal anecdotes, and asking questions about his writing practices. They said, ‘We’ve never heard poetry in our language before. We didn’t know poetry could sound like that.’"
Garcia is humble about the praise, but solemn about its implications. "It is a great ego boost to hear students say they’ve never heard anything like my writing before, but that is quickly tempered by the veracity of their statements. True, there is a recent increase in the amount of exposure to Latino and Chicano writers, but most textbooks do not offer enough works by Hispanics, or Asians, for that matter," he says.
What many of Garcia’s fans notice quickly is a dialect that is distinctly homegrown. "The entire book is a play on words," says Garcia. "That’s the theme of the book."
In the selection "Apples & Oranges: A Play on Words," a door-to-door salesman and a Valley resident named Juan engage in an Abbott and Costello routine. SALESMAN: Good morning. May I speak to the lady of the house? JUAN: Cheese knot hear. SALESMAN: Oh, I’m sorry, do you live here? JUAN: Owe, know sir. Cheese my friend. SALESMAN: Is there anyone home who lives here? JUAN: Yes, but chicken talc write now ether!
"I don’t necessarily write with reading aloud in mind, but, that being said, poems come at me out loud. I fall in love with a line and then things just take off from there," he said.
"All of my poems, especially those in this book, have a rhythm to them.
Although most of my poems rhyme, it is the beat that creates the poem. A certain syllabic rhythm comes with each poem and I use the beat to create," added Garcia.
Cole insists Garcia’s poems demand to be read aloud. "Don’t read these poems quietly to yourself. As you turn the page, warm up your vocal folds, turn on your voice, and read out loud," she writes on the book jacket.
Garcia hopes that by publishing his works, their importance will endure. "It would be naïve to say that I do not think readers get something out of listening to me read the poems, but people don’t take me home. They take the words home without me, but I think there’s plenty there to enjoy. There’s plenty for teachers to dissect and anthropologists to enjoy as well."
Reflecting on his own writing voice, Garcia’s believes there are actually two distinct voices present in his collection.
"In the first I am an American. I am that child that went forth that Whitman talked about. I was a poor Mexican-American kid who joined the Navy and fell in love with California beaches and the Statue of Liberty and hip-hop. I had that Coney Island hot dog at the feet of the Twin Towers and touched the Liberty Bell. I soaked up Langston Hughes like a sponge," he said.
"In the second half of the book, I am Mexican-American and I wrote with the Valley audience in mind. Although I have a couple of political poems, my writing is not your typical angry Chicano fare. There are so many positive and funny things about growing up poor and Mexican in the Valley — so much to celebrate — that I tend to focus on that rather than on the negative."
Garcia will read from his book at 8 p.m. Saturday at Hastings Bookstore, located at 4500 N. 10th St., Suite 400, McAllen. A book signing will follow. Visit www.elzarapepress.com or call (956) 358-7211 for more information.
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Martin Winchester is a book critic for The Monitor.
He is an English teacher at the IDEA Academy in Donna. Send comments to mwinchester@ideapublicschools.org.
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