Asina is How We Talk: A collection of Tejano poetry written en la lengua de la gente

by Isabel Ann Castro (Cover Art), Eddie Vega (Editor)

Asina is How We Talk is a fresh and tasty morsel of language activism, a defense of that nepantla of a borderland between two cultures, two languages, two nations, where even how we accent our words, which languages we speak, and whether those languages are allowed to consort with each other become a political, personal, and possibly confrontational action. An anthem of biculturalism, it fills our senses with the tastes and sounds of that cultural and linguistic mix where children of the Aztec Quinto Sol express their uniqueness and pride "...Eating pepperoni pizza/With salsa verde..." (Nicolás Valdez) and learn that "cenizas quedan/ my body should be a furnace" (ire'ne lara silva.)

96 pages, Paperback

Published December 5, 2022

About the author

Isabel Ann Castro: Eats tacos on the reg and like a true millennial, is a college grad and back home living with her parents. She earned a degree in design and is putting it to good use on or sweet sweet layouts. Influenced by cinema, post-punk, comics, hand painted taqueria signs, and the Mexican-American life. Best Compliment Received: Someone said her artwork reminded them of "Love and Rockets" and she's been acting like a chiflada ever since.

via https://stsucia.bigcartel.com/about

Reviews

[Joanne Rixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really lovely collection of Tejano poetry: vivid, emotional, and creative. Reading this made me proud to be bilingual, but if you have to read it with a Spanish dictionary in hand I think it would still be totally worth it. The activist poems, all about being Tejano and Chicano and bilingual, are important and necessary, but my favorite are the poems that are just about life, like Cesar De Leon's "When You Know You Know: A Pocho Love Sonnet", which is just incredibly cute:

'You know you're la mera paipa
porque sabes parkear la troca de tu apá
bien de aquellas by the alley so no one sees us
sneak away late late you know

for a picsa and pecsi date y luego porear
& you know how to ponerle piquete
& trenchas al ponche y al coo-lay if it's weak
& there better be cay-que or aque no es pore, you know?

porque lookit let me show you
how i know how
hacerle cook, hacerle clean, hacerle dust,
mapear the floors y hacerle turn on

la internet chingadora back when it goes down you know
--so we can netflix and shill'

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, great set up, page turning, real life stories/poems that come to life if you're from the valley!