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    Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA
    Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA
    Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA
    Ebook84 pages43 minutes

    Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA

    By Emanuel Xavier

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    About this ebook

    Americano: Growing up Gay and Latino in the USA is a groundbreaking collection from one of the most provocative voices in modern American poetry. The poems contained in these pages challenge mainstream sexual, political and religious beliefs reflecting unique experiences from the outskirts of the heartland. In pursuit of the American dream, this is a tribute to freedom and equality from an insider looking out while enjoying a piece of both the apple and lemon merengue pie.

    “Emanuel Xavier's work begins in street poetry--angry, direct, and raw--but he complicates that style with sweetness, jokes, surprising details, grace notes, mystery, and sudden beauty. You never know where one of his poems will take you. There is anger in his humor, but love in his anger. He is fully in touch with a rich range of emotions. Just open this book to "Americano" or "Teresa" or "Elegantly Fucked" and see what I mean. He is a poet who is not afraid to feel--and say--anything.”
    —author Christopher Bram

    “In the religious light of these poems the everyday gets revealed as a miracle again and again. Two boys having sex (‘your mother in the other room’) are without contradiction entirely hot and holy. Emanuel Xavier is a poet who takes wild comfort in the world and knows god is watching too.” —poet Eileen Myles

    “Emanuel Xavier sweeps into the streets with the audacity to show us his heart, reflecting fearlessly on a life consumed with the passion to live it. In these vivid poems immersed with humility, presence and love—he shares with us, the tastes, the smells, the beat, all the vaya passionistica that it takes to be Americano—to be a human being in a modern-day America that knows too many boundaries. Xavier is aware that words alone can’t save the world, but they can definitely start the revolution.”
    —poet Edwin Torres

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRebel Satori Press
    Release dateOct 8, 2012
    ISBN9781608640911
    Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA
    Author

    Emanuel Xavier

    Emanuel Xavier took the New York City spoken word scene by storm in 1996, quickly becoming one of the most significant voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican poetry movement. Following in the tradition of writers/performers like Miguel Piñero, Xavier captivated audiences with a fresh and poignant brand of art that celebrated sexuality, Latino heritage, and the often brutal streets of New York. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Pier Queen and Americano, and a novel Christ-Like.

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      Book preview

      Americano - Emanuel Xavier

      INTRODUCTION BY EMANUEL XAVIER

      Ten years ago, an earlier version of this poetry collection heralded me as a minor celebrity in the downtown NYC arts scene. Bringing these selections back into print with this fresh new edition, I have the rare opportunity of celebrating this extended journey with a whole new audience.

      As a self-published chapbook, Pier Queen barely registered as a poetry collection and the novel Christ Like did nothing more than satisfy my only desire to explore fiction writing. Nonetheless, I had strayed too far from the West Side Highway piers and the underground gay club scene to ever go back. I found comfort in the spoken word and slam poetry scene but wanted to do more than read at open mics and compete with three minute rules.

      Americano was my first official poetry collection printed by a small press much like the one issuing this publication. It had a nice run for a few years and seemingly inspired a new generation of voices. It is not enough to be boxed into more than one minority genre—gay and Latino. With these selections, I basically make no effort to be embraced by the mainstream.

      A cute little Latino boy dressed as a cowboy waving an American flag in the middle of the heartland is hardly an image anyone will walk away with after reading these poems. However, I owe my survival from the brutal streets as a queer homeless teen to the avant-garde artists which challenged and inspired me to share my own vision of America.

      We enjoy great opportunities in these United States- freedom of expression and freedom of speech. However, that also gives prejudice and hatred the right to co-exist. To be an Americano in today’s world is to feel like an outsider in your own country while watching the struggle for immigration rights with the knowledge that we still have a long road ahead of us for real equality. It doesn’t matter if you were born and raised in this country or not, let alone Born This Way. In the United States, if you do not fit into the same mythical images of a light-haired, blue-eyed, white-skinned Christ, you would be hard pressed to be considered a true American. In a country filled with Chick-Fil-A’s and Westboro Baptist Churches and Youth for Western Civilizations, art that directly challenges the mainstream is still fringe.

      These poems are not all about being an American. The themes are universal to anyone who has ever felt invisible in their own countries because of their differences. They are about love, hurt and redemption. They aspire to speak to anyone who ever felt introspective about who they are and how they fit into the world they live in. They are about making your own path and taking the time to look back but also looking forward to the future.

      —Emanuel Xavier

      NYC, 2012

      This is the story of America. Everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do. —Jack Kerouac, On the Road

      MARICONCITO

      was what his stepfather called him. He was not even a teen and yet it was evident that he had no physical attraction to girls, besides the fact that he was quite effeminate. He liked to read books and was soft spoken, strange. He was identified as gay before he even knew what the word meant- sitting in the back seat of his stepfather’s car pretending not to hear him.

      Dime la verdad. Eres maricon? were the words reserved for him when his mother was out shopping as they waited in that

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