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I'm delighted to welcome
Heriberto Yépez to Tucson,

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to POG.

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Heriberto comes to
us from Tijuana,

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where he teaches philosophy
at the Autonomous University

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of Baja California, Tijuana.

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No less a polymath than Monday's
POG presenter, counterculture

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icon Ira Cohen,
Heriberto is also

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essayist, short story
writer, translator,

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and fiercely energetic
political literary blogger.

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His Spanish language
publications include the poetry

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collection, Por una poética
antes del paleolítico y después

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de la propaganda, published
by Grupo Editorial Anortecer

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in 2000, a translation
of poet Jerry Rothenberg,

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two collections of essays-- he's
not an old guy, you can tell--

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and the e-book Obras
electrónicas selecta.

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Work in English has appeared in
such journals such as Tripwire,

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Chain, Cross Culture
Poetics, and Shark,

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as well as in the groundbreaking
bilingual anthology

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Across the Line / Al otro lado,
the Poetry of Baja California,

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published by sometime
Tucsonan and once

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and future POG presenter Mark
Weiss's Junction Press in 2002.

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Heriberto's current
vlog projects

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include the English
language, Mexperimental

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and the Spanish
language Ensamble.

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I also recommend February
2003, "Letter to You, the US."

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Links to all these can be
found on the Pod website.

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It's evident even
from the selections

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in Across the Line
/ Al otro lado

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that the range of Heriberto's
work in poetry is great.

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There's the savage beat
Ginsbergean, maníacos y locos,

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which in Mark's English
translation "Maniacs

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and Crazies" opens like this.

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And I'll read just
a couple of lines.

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"Ubiquitous gimps with matted
hair and greasy clothes

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walking down
bottlenecked streets

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and digging through piles of
garbage, the remains of school

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lunches and restaurant
scraps, clenching their hands

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and muzzles into boxes of mixed
leftovers of Chinese takeout,

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harvesting half rotten
lettuce tossed into the street

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by taco stands, hovering
around food vendors,

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their only hope for a
mouth full of warm food.

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Although the taco makers'
blood-spattered aprons

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terrify them, reminding them
of the horrors of psych wards."

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Then there's "The Life
of a Cucapá Woman,"

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a species of found poem
framed to be as accurate,

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both mordant and tender.

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It starts like this in Harry
Polkinhorn's translation.

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"Now I have a gas
stove and my house

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is no longer this twisted
body beside the fire.

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My grandfather-- my house is
no longer this twisted body

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beside the fire my
grandfather made.

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My new house is furnished.

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I have a store-bought
stove but it suffocates me

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and I prefer to cook
outside on an open fire.

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I love doing my chores at night.

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It's too bad there's no
way to save Indian ways.

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Who would use them?"

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So I'm eager to
hear more from him.

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Please welcome Heriberto Yépez.

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