LA NEGRA REMEMBERS THE MASSACRE @ TRELEW

Why did we leave Argentina? Why did we leave Argentina?

We left Argentina because Argentina was going through political problems, and people began disappearing. We knew a lot of the people that had invested themselves, or were currently comprised and being monitored. We were probably being monitored as well. But, more than anything, we worked with the people in the shanty towns that needed the most help.

There was a person who directed, like the priest no buen moso, he was at the center of things. And then, there were the people who orchestrated us. Some were associated with the movements, and some were just sympathizers. They'd pass messages along by slipping pieces of paper under your door, so I guess they knew everyone's address, which was quite a feat back then. And, you never knew or expected the people that were compromised, just as much as you never expected the turncoats to be so brazen.

We left around the time of the Matanza de Trelew in 1972, where they had just gunned down 19 political pains-in-the-ass close to the Patagonia. Originally what had happened was that 25 political prisoners, probably the martyr vanguard of the Dirty War, had escaped from the Rawson Torture Campus in the province of Chubut. Six made it to Allende's Heaven of Socialism, but 19 were not able to dematerialize. Later, pacts were made with military leaders stipulating they would not be unharmed. They were (harmed). Repeatedly and with great gusto. With service revolvers at close range. Repeatedly. And with great gusto.

BERLY GETS A HOLD OF FLOURESCENT YELLOW

These beautiful images are from an El Salvadorean primer. I would really like to use these images for the seventh issue of Hinchas, but would like to change the pattern that I typically use to lay out our online journal.

I want these images to create like a thematic kernel that is repeated through the issue, and maybe the biggest question is whether to use a limited but user-friendly software like Adobe Muse or just do the whole ish using a CMS.

I still don't know, but I do know that these images need to be resuscitated and that Hinchas will happily be the squad with the defibrilator.

INTRO + ITINERARY

I would like to thank you for coming out tonight to the Valley Contemporary Poets reading. Special thank you to Rick Lupert, Jeff Rochlin, and Rafa Alvarado and their tireless efforts invigorating the Los Angeles County poetry mundo.

But, I would like to congratulate you on choosing to interact with your fellow Angelenos at the Cobalt. Coming to a reading of poetry in the Age of Mass Distraction is a bold move. But, taking a chance on a writer is what makes a life of Literacy worth living.

Once you realize the buffet that abounds, in terms of interesting things to read, you find yourself reading the world with a my-eyes-are-always-bigger-than-my-stomach-approach. The history of print is so rich that anything printed has always held my interest. It is no coincidence I pay the rent as a librarian.

I have 20 minutes so let me not waste any more preaching to the choir. I hope you've never read my work, but I really admire the work of Nicanor Parra; he is the inventor of "Anti-Poetry" and a Latin American giant. And, I thought I knew the work of Mario Benedetti, but I did not at all and so I feel like I am re-discovering his work at a really opportune time in my writing life.

Nicanor Parra's "Test" page 67

Poem in Which My Hair is a Fanatical Quill
Harken! Endless Poxes
Cajon Pass
The Gazpacho is Enchanting & The Gazpacho Enchants Me

Nicanor Parra's "Mummies" page 49

Poem in Praise of Vending Machines Avec First Line Stolen From My Ex-Student, Hakeem
She's My Lobbyist
How the Phoenicians Invented Purple

Mario Benedetti's "Angelus" page 51

Derelict Specter
Insane Lake Michigan
Angelenos

Mario Benedetti's "Desaparecidos" page 205

Prologue to Detention
Longitudinal Duress
Cypher Adagio
Quasar Invocation