Freddy Gutierrez

Hijo de Mi Alma

There is a sadness though that runs an ocean deep within. Had almost spanned that 
much too, when she had no map to the treasure of arms crossed in embrace over a
cultural divide.

She misses something, an old friend, talking story over café in the afternoon, her
 motherland, Puerto Rico, Isla del Encanto. She’s left with memorias por montones.
Misses her childhood, forced to leave by a bootstrapped father.

The Bronx. Oakland. L.A. Pittsburg.

Every year, at the bus rodeo for East Co Co County, she’s asked what her one wish is,
and she states, “I want to go back to Puerto Rico”.

She sees in her boy a pitirre, calling her from an ocean span away. An island so
sweet, dulce de ajonjolí. And he wishes he could be, bajando del monte, su canto de
jíbaro.


Boy Toys

When I was mocoso I played with muscle men
luchadores
two inch figures of molded plastic opened my imagination 

Often I played the lead role
            el tio who had just returned from the war
            big brother Tres Flores pomade slick hair and the fly ride
            vato de aquellos who everybody respected and no one crossed 


There was a story I often reenacted
            young man has a daughter
            daughter teaches young man
            how   to be

 

leftside

BIO
Freddy Gutierrez, vato de aquellos, residing in Oakland, California. Freddy is pursing an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College where he was awarded the Community Poetics Assistantship. He is also a Teaching Artist in the fields of poetry and theatre teaching K-12 and university students, and in the local jails and juvenile halls; and at San Quentin State Penitentiary. The bulk of his poetic creations have been performative in that the works have gone from the page to the stage and the street. Freddy’s read and performed at Galería de la Raza in San Francisco’s Mission District, La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, The Ashby Stage also in Berkeley, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, San Francisco State, Sacramento State, San Francisco City College and other colleges and universities throughout Northern California, as well as, to support many of the local social protests, rallies, and direct actions for campaigns concerned with immigration rights, housing and tenant rights, indigenous rights, and the criminalization of youth of color. He’s published poems with POOR Magazine, {m}aganda Magazine, and Poemas Insurgentes.

© The Acentos Review 2013