A version of “The End of Belonging” appeared as a column in the Huffington Post on November 15, 2011, and in blog posts for the Los Angeles Public Library website and on www.luisjrodriguez.com, as well as in the University of Oklahoma’s World Literature Today: Activism Issue 93, no. 3 (September 2019). The poem “Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100” is from the book Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982–2002 by Martín Espada (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004). Used with permission.
Most of “The Four Key Connections” appeared as a blog post based on a keynote speech I gave in 2014 at the 10th Annual J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, on “Justice for Native Americans: Historical Trauma, Contemporary Images, and Human Rights.” It became the basis for a TEDx talk I gave in Venice, California, in October 2017. It also appeared as a blog post on the Los Angeles Public Library website, August 17, 2016. In this work, I drew from information and knowledge in the books Nahui Mitl: The Journey of the Four Arrows (Mexico City: Mexicayotl Productions, 1998 by Tlakaelel of the In Kontonal Center (Mexico City); Cosmic Mayan Manual: Wizard’s Oracle by Tascara Patala (Los Angeles: The Mayan Center, 1998); a series of books by Mexican indigenous teacher Arturo Meza Gutiérrez from the Kalpulli Toltekayotl, Mexico City; writings from and talks with Anthony Lee of Lukachukai, Arizona, on the Diné Nation; the writings of Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez; and the teachings of: Cozkacuahtli Huitzilcenteotl of the Kalpulli Tloque Nahuaque in LA’s San Fernando Valley; John Chee Smith of the Diné Nation; Macuiltochtli of Chicago; Julio Revolorio of Guatemala; Edilson Panduro (a Quechua traditional healer from the Amazon forest of Peru); Ed Young Man Afraid of His Horses of Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Tekpaltzin (Frank Blazquez) and his wife, Xochimeh (Lou), of Albuquerque, New Mexico; the Rarámuri of Cusárare, Copper Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico; Zapoteco leaders in Juchitan, Oaxaca; Pipil elders in Izalco, San Salvador, El Salvador; and my friend, the poet and activist John Trudell.
A version of “Nemachtilli: The Spirit of Learning, the Spirit of Teaching” appeared in the National Council of Teachers of English’s English Journal 94, no. 3 (January 2005).
Versions of “Constant State of Pregnancy” have appeared as speeches as well as blog posts over the years on www.luisjrodriguez.com.
Versions of “Poet Laureate? Poet Illiterate? What?” have appeared from 2014 to 2015 as blog posts on the Los Angeles Public Library website and on www.luisjrodriguez.com.
A section of “I Still Love H.E.R.” appeared in U.S. Latino Literatures and Cultures: Transnational Perspectives (Fall 2000), a journal published by Universitätsverlag C. Winter in Heidelberg, Germany. The poem “Civilization” appeared in My Nature Is Hunger: New and Selected Poems, 1989–2004 (Evanston, IL: Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press, 2005).
A version of “‘Low and Slow’ in Tokyo” appeared in Bella magazine in September 2007, and in Santino Rivera, ed., Lowriting: Shots, Rides & Stories from the Chicano Soul (Broken Sword Publications, 2014). A passage was published in the online magazine Pocho (“Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider,” February 12, 2014, http://www.pocho.com/tokyo-living-la-vida-lowrider-by-luis-rodriguez/) and in California’s Westways magazine (“Lowrider Love: An L.A. Poet Reflects on One of SoCal’s Gifts to the World,” July/August 2018.
“Prickly Pear Cactus: Experiencing Los Angeles with Other Eyes” was originally written for Wundor City Guide Los Angeles, edited by Matthew Smith (London: Wunder Editions Ltd., 2018). Some of this material also appeared in the anthology LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas, edited by Patricia Wakida (San Francisco: Heyday Books, 2015). This essay includes writings over the years from the Progressive, the Nation, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Parts of this essay also appeared in the introduction to From Trouble to Triumph: True Stories of Redemption from Drugs, Gangs, and Prison, by Alisha M. Rosas (San Fernando, CA: Tia Chucha Press, 2017) as well as the foreword to Smile Now, Cry Later: Guns, Gangs and Tattoos—My Life in Black and Gray, by Freddy Negrete and Steve Jones (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2016). The excerpt from “Love Poem to Los Angeles” is from Borrowed Bones (Evanston, IL: Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press, 2016).
“Monsters of Our Own Making” draws from writings in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Guardian, San Bernardino Sun, and Huffington Post, as well as blog posts on the Los Angeles Public Library website and at www.luisjrodriguez.com. The poem “Poverty of Access,” by Jeffery Martin, was published in The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles, edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Daniel A. Olivas, and Ruben J. Rodriguez (San Fernando, CA: Tia Chucha Press, 2016). Used with permission of the author. “Pedazo a pedazo” appeared in The Nobody (Pullman, WA: University of Washington, Spring 2003); Crossroads Magazine (Oakland, CA: December 1995/January 1996); Trecero Festival Mundial de Poesia—Venezuela 2006 (Caracas, Venezuela: Fundacion Editorial, El Perro y La Rana, Spring 2007); and Desperate Literature: The Unamuno Author Series Festival, A Bilingual Anthology (Madrid: Desperate Literature, Spring 2019). Special thanks to the Alliance for California Traditional Arts for allowing me to teach the Lancaster State Prison classes I’ve cited here. Thanks also to the Trauma to Transformation program of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural and its funders, the Art for Justice Fund and California Arts Council, for supporting our arts-based work in prisons, juvenile hall, parolee housing, and with families of the incarcerated.
Other versions of “Men’s Tears” have appeared as blog posts on www.luisjrodriguez.com and the Los Angeles Public Library website. Greg Kimura’s poem is from his self-published 2013 book Cargo. Rumi’s poem is from The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems, trans. Coleman Barks (New York: HarperOne, 2001).
A version of “Dancing the Race and Identity Mambo” appeared in blog posts for the Los Angeles Public Library website.
A version of “The Story of Our Day” appeared in ‘White’ Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies, edited by Denise M. Sandoval, Anthony J. Ratcliff, Tracy Lachica Buenavista, and James R. Marin, vol. 1, K–12 (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2016). A version was also presented as a paper in 2015 at the Second California Network for Revolutionary Change Conference at the XL Public House, Salinas, California. Parts were also taken from a blogpost at www.luisjrodriguez.com and a January 2017 episode of the podcast The Hummingbird Cricket Hour.
“On the Day I Die” from The Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks. Copyright © 2001 by Coleman Barks. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Permission for the use of the following is gratefully acknowledged: “[Untitled]” by Greg Kimura. Copyright © 2013 by Greg Kimura. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.