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An interview with a major Chicano poet.
Poet Tino Villanueva to read at The Somerville News Writers Festival Nov 14 7PM at the Armory Arts Center
By Doug Holder
The Somerville News Writers Festival is hitting its seventh year thanks to the folks at The Somerville News, Tim Gager, and the spanking new Armory Arts Center in Somerville. This year Tim has secured the services of such writers as Rick Moody, John Buffalo Mailer (That’s right Norman’s son!), Steve Almond, Margo Livesey, and Kim Chuinquee. I had the pleasure of booking poets Sam Cornish, Richard Hoffman, Tam Lin Neville, Frank Bidart, and Tino Villanueva. Villanueva is a Professor of Romance Languages at Boston University, and recognized as one of the most important Chicano voices today according to the “’The Texas Observer.” The noted Hispanic poet Martin Espada opined that Villanueva was “…central to the vibrant Hispanic literary scene that began flourishing in Boston during the 8o’s.” Indeed Villanueva has no doubt influenced a whole generation of Latino writers.
Villanueva, who had youthful aspirations to be a baseball player, published an influential internationally focused literary magazine “Imagine,” and has published a number of critically acclaimed poetry collections, as well as works of criticism. His collection “Scene from the Movie Giant” won an American Book Award (1993). His other books include: Primera causa/First Cause (translated by Lisa Horowitz,) Shaking off the Dark, Chronicle of MY Worst Years, and others. I had the opportunity to catch up with Villanueva before he started his busy teaching schedule at Boston University.
Doug Holder: You have completed a thirty-one set of poems titled: "So Spoke Penelope" (poems based on Homer's Odyssey) that is written from the point of view of Queen Penelope, Odysseus's wife. Penelope waited 20 years for Odysseus return from the Trojan War. Do you think there arecontemporary applications for the modern woman today considering we are in a constant of war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
TINO VILLANUEVA: IN A COUPLE OF PLACES PENELOPE DOES COMMENT ON THE WAR. IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS, SHE HOLDS AN ANTI-WAR ATTITUDE, AND AT ONE POINT SAYS: “Cannot
the gods intervene on the side of peace? / Enough with this madness. “
BEYOND THAT, THE BOOK IS ABOUT ABSENCE, AND HAVING TO WAIT TWENTY YEARS MAKES HER---FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES--A WAR WIDOW, AND ODYSSEUS AN M.I.A. THESE ARE TWO CONSEQUENCES OF WAR, AND IT'S MY BELIEF AMERICAN
READERS WILL IDENTIFY WITH PENELOPE'S PREDICAMENT, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHOSE MEMORY RUNS FROM THE KOREAN WAR ONWARD TO THIS DAY. IN PENELOPE'S CASE, SHE'S QUITE FORTUNATE HER HUSBAND RETURNS.
DH: You really did deep into the mind of Penelope--her dream state, mind vs. body, what she prays for, etc... You wrote that Homer only gives us glimpses into her mind set. Was this because during this era in
history a woman's mind was not deemed worthy for a lengthy exegesis?
TV: THIS MAY BE TRUE, BUT NOT SO FAST---GIVE HOMER SOME CREDIT. IN *THE ODYSSEY *PENELOPE IS REGARDED AS "WISE PENELOPE." SHE IS SHREWD SMART, AND WILY, I WOULD SAY, ENOUGH TO MATCH WITS WITH ODYSSEUS WHEN HE
FINALLY SHOWS UP (DISGUISED AS AN OLD MAN) AT THE PALACE.
NOW THEN, I WAS VERY SPECIFIC: WHAT I SAID IS THAT HOMER DOES NOT TELL US ENOUGH ABOUT PENELOPE'S IDEAS ON WEAVING. IT WOULD'VE BEEN QUITE EXTRAORDINARY IF THE POET HAD GIVEN US A GLIMPSE INTO PENELOPE'S VIEWS ON THE CRAFT OF WORKING WITH WOOL---PENELOPE AS WEAVER, PENELOPE AS
ARTIST, IN OTHER WORDS. IN MORE THAN A COUPLE OF MY POEMS SHE LAUNCHES INTO THIS FACET OF HERSELF, ESPECIALLY IN TWO OF THE POEMS I SENT YOU: "In Color and in Cloth" and "A Width of Cloth."
DH: You said in an interview in the Texas Observer that you don't want to live in a literary ghetto. At any time in your career were you being
forced into that direction?
TV: THE QUOTE ACTUALLY SAYS "literary barrio."
IN THE PAST SEVERAL MAGAZINES / JOURNALS HAVE ASKED ME TO CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR "CHICANO ISSUE" OR THEIR "LATINO ISSUE," WHEN, REALLY, THEY SHOULD SIMPLY INVITE ME TO THEIR MAINSTREAM PAGES THEY PUBLISH THE REST OF THE
TIME. I APPRECIATE THAT A JOURNAL WOULD WANT TO SHOWCASE MY POEMS, CERTAINLY, BUT I BRISTLE A BIT WHEN EDITORS TRY TO PIGEON-HOLE ME. NOT DENISE LEVERTOV HAD HER STRONG CONVICTION SHE WANTED TO BE INVITED AS A POET, NOT AS A WOMAN.
DH: You are an accomplished artist. I have seen your prints in a number of lit mags. How did this art develop? Is in confluence with your poetry?
Who are you influenced by?
TV: I DON'T KNOW IF I DESERVE THE "accomplished artist" LABEL, BUT FOR MEIT STARTED IN SUMMER OF 1973 WHEN I WENT TO SEE AN EXHIBIT OF WILLIAM BLAKE'S WATERCOLORS AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HERE IN BOSTON. I HAD SEEN SEVERAL ADS AROUND TOWN FOR THE EXHIBIT, AND WAS CURIOUS ABOUT
THIS BLAKE FELLOW WHO HAD THE SAME NAME AS THE POET I'D READ AS AN UNDERGRADUATE. COULD IT BE THE SAME PERSON, I WONDERED. THAT DREW ME TO THE MFA ONE DAY IN AUGUST, AND WHAT A SURPRISE---A POET WHOSE POEMS I ADMIRED TURNED OUT TO BE A PAINTER AS WELL. THAT OPENED MY MIND TO THE REALIZATION THAT YOU COULD BE A WRITER, AND A PAINTER TOO. QUITE A REVELATION THAT WAS, BELIEVE ME. IT CHANGED THE DIRECTION OF MY CREATIVE LIFE. SO I WENT OUT AND PURCHASED SOME WATERCOLORS AND SOME PAPER, AND TO MY DISMAY SOON DISCOVERED WATERCOLORS ARE NOT THAT EASY
TO RENDER. ALL THE MORE RESPECT GAVE TO MR. BLAKE.
SO I WENT AHEAD AND PROMOTED MYSELF TO ACRYLICS, AND THEN TO OILS, THE RESULTS OF MY EFFORTS WITH THESE MEDIA BEING MORE SATISFACTORY. THEN I PICKED UP PASTELS, AND WOUND UP WORKING WITH COLLAGE, AND MY OWN
CREATION: A COMBINATION OF WATERCOLORS, CRAYON, AND PEN OR PENCIL.
JOURNALS SUCH AS *Green Mountains Review*, AND *TriQuarterly* HAVE IN THE PAST DISPLAYED MY ART WORK ON THEIR COVERS. A GREAT HONOR FOR ME.
*TriQuarterly* EVEN WANTED TO BUY THE PAINTING, *Dreamscape *(1989), BUT I DECLINED. IT HANGS PROUDLY IN MY LIVING-ROOM.
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