Sagrado: A Photopoetics across the Chicano Homeland by Spencer R. Herrera

Abstract

Laura Solomon An Imitation of Life Proverse Hong Kong A giantess aging three times the normal rate, Celia Doom experiences firsthand the horrified harshness of a world displeased with her appearance. Her talent at photography allows her to document the everyday existence of the town she is partly responsible for devastating. Solomon’s first-person novel realistically vocalizes the grotesque beauty this character offers. Qaisra Shahraz Revolt Arcadia Books An upcoming marriage of two wealthy cousins in a small town intimately reveals Pakistani family life. Traditional Muslim values meet modern Western ones, setting off a whimsical collection of problems and events. Regardless of whether the action is in England or Pakistan, Revolt shows what happens in a family where nothing is kept private. Nota Bene the “bystander effect” isn’t gripping us, worldwide, in the face of climate change. Jumping in to help, finally, and spurring others to action, Schulman realizes that even if she doesn’t know what to do, the doing is necessary and empowering. These crisp contributions read like the thoughts of ordinary folks trying to figure out how to live sustainable and meaningful lives in thrall of enormous changes that so often seem beyond the reach of individual action. This book is an important and often moving contribution. John Calderazzo Colorado State University Spencer R. Herrera. Sagrado: A Photopoetics across the Chicano Homeland. Luis Valdez, foreword. Robert Kaiser, photography. Levi Romero, poetry. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press. 2013. isbn 9780826353542 This book by Spencer R. Herrera, coauthored by poet Levi Romero and with photography by Robert Kaiser, tells the remarkable story of a cruise through the United States Southwest by two professors and a photographer artist, an itinerant trio led by a compass of cherished writers—Rudolfo Anaya, Tomás Rivera, and, among others, May–August 2014 • 121 122 worldliteraturetoday.org reviews Octavio Paz—and pulled by the ideal of another America and by what Herrera calls the elusive Chicano notion of culture and identity. Their mission is to experience the sagrado (sacred), a space that materializes when two or more people gather in the name of community, be it in the plaza, in the local cemetery, or down the road. Herrera reflects on his readings of Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude , a book that reminds us that a country is not represented by a racial community or a culturally homogenous people but by the coexistence of mutually enriching cultures and different peoples who oftentimes carry the “other” in their innermost selves, as is the case of Chicanos with names such as Spencer and Levi and a photographer who has the “face of a gringo [. . .] but the heart of a Chicano.” Their “photopoetic” journey results in a creative mix of images and moving discourses expressed in three different art forms: the essay, poetry, and the snapshot, with Herrera’s wistful and insightful narrative as the guiding meditation through a personal labyrinth, recalling his early youth in Texas, his teenage travels across the border to Michoacán, Mexico City, and Veracruz, his “migration” to New Mexico, and his lifelong desire to see Chicano superheroes save the day, fall in love, or be known as contributors to society. The real superheroes, however , appear in this book in humble plazas and barrios as farm workers; in fraternal gatherings of patriotic elderly Chicano war veterans; as an infant girl dressed as an Aztec princess next to a boy garbed as a Mexican charro; a proud Mexican father embracing his teenage son who holds a trophy with filial joy; and, next to other memorable images and accompanying poems, a friar on a barren hill blessing a would-be Juan Diego. This book takes us to Arizona, where the cruelest American heat is felt, and in search of another superhero : Pancho Villa. His contemporary incarnation finds embodiment in Carlos Luis, a Pascua Yaqui known locally as Pancho Villa: he is photographed against the Tucson sky and near the historic mission of San Xavier del Bac, founded in 1692 by Eusebio Francisco Kino. An Italian Jesuit, theologian, and geographer, Kino is remembered in the Native American Southwest for his cultural and spiritual legacy. A veteran of the army’s Airborne...