The Poetry of Jose Escobar: Mexican Emigre in New Mexico

Abstract

S ITERARY HISTORIES of Southwest have until recently been written by Anglos who largely ignored literature of Spanish-speaking population.' Lately, Mexican-Americans have begun to protest this omission and Anglo ethnocentrism which was responsible for it. Referring specifically to territorial period and lack of attention paid to Mexican-American contributions, one author has called it the 'Dark Ages' of American literary history.2 Since early 1900's specialists in folklore have recognized and researched abundant folk culture of Spanishspeaking Southwestern population, particularly in northern New Mexico where popular tradition of versifying and storytelling can be traced back to its roots in medieval Spain.3 Most of studies published by scholars as well as folklore materials compiled by New Mexico Writers' Project of WPA4 were collected orally from informants whose numbers continue to dwindle as twentieth century entertainments erode old customs. The printed rather than spoken word is what literary historians have commonly turned to as medium of their investigation. To my knowledge, only works published in Spanish in New Mexico in late nineteenth century were primarily historical or religious in orientation.5 However, fact that no novels or volumes of poetry are known to have been printed is not conclusive proof that literature was not written by Mexican-Americans. Indeed there is evidence that Mexican-Americans often wrote verses in popular mode and sent them to local Spanish-language newspapers for publication, both anonymously and with signatures.6 In these newspapers, literary features were printed regularly and included local contributions of a popular nature as well as selections of European and Latin American authors whose works belong to a more learned tradition.7 Given this combination of literary interests, it seemed likely that same source would contain creative literatur written by local Mexican-Americans familiar with European tradition and with modern trends in Latin American