500000 Azaleas

by Efraín Huerta

In verses that fuse highly original imagery with exuberant rhythms, Efraín Huerta probes the cultures of both Mexico and "el Norte," from the impact of racism in Mississippi to political corruption in Mexico. Since he demanded for life and art the same freedom he demanded for politics, his poetry is often erotic. His poems are passionate outcries to love and justice, characterized by original metaphors and an acerbic wit that earned him the nickname "Crocodile."

Genres: Poetry

180 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Efraín Huerta ​ fue un poeta y periodista mexicano. Nacido en el estado de Guanajuato, terminó la primaria y estudió la secundaria en la ciudad de Querétaro; posteriormente la familia se mudó a la capital de México para que sus hermanos mayores ingresaran a la universidad. Debía algunas materias, motivo por el que no pudo ingresar a la Academia de San Carlos, tras revalidarlas, entró más tarde a la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, donde conoció a diversos escritores como Rafael Solana, Carmen Toscano y Octavio Paz. Se dedicó a escribir poesía desde una edad temprana, aunque inicialmente pretendía recibirse como abogado; no obstante, cuando se publicó su primer libro de poesía, se dedicó a la escritura completamente. Como poeta, Huerta, publicó con frecuencia desde 1930 hasta 1982;como periodista colaboró con alrededor de cuarenta periódicos y revistas, algunos bajo su nombre y otros bajo sus seudónimos. Fue políticamente activo, y partidario de la República Española durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Fue fundador de la revista Taller. Toda su vida publicó aforismos y pequeñas líneas humorísticas y, en los años sesenta, creó una nueva forma poética a la que bautizó como "poemínimo”.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered Efraín Huerta in the mid-seventies, in the Dutton anthology New Poetry of Mexico, where he was represented by two poems in clear but slightly flat translations by Philip Levine—and I'm embarrassed to say that my Spanish at the time was so poor that I failed to appreciate Huerta's virtues: a fearlessly critical social vision combined with lyric intensity and fierce wit. Jim Normington admirably captures all these qualities and smuggles them into English. The result are poems that few of Huerta's American contemporaries could match, enthralled as they were by Eliotic neurasthenia; there were three great exceptions, it seems to me—Muriel Rukeyser, Karl Shapiro, and Reed Whittemore—but none of these commanded audiences nearly large as members of the Eliot Club.

Here's an example of Huerta's charismatic chutzpah:

THE COLONY HOTEL
(Pinos Island)
for Roberto Fernández Retamar

The crooked tycoons with freckled, shoe-leather faces
planned and constructed it for their alcoholic weekends

It cost one little scale from the serpent called Wall Street

The potbellied ones the dyspeptics the ulcerous
the psychopaths the arthritics will have arrived
and their beautiful animal-like secretaries

The thugs hired by George Raft will come
and the most select and vibrant whores from Las Vegas

The thugs will dance naked to raise the dirty tooth of prices
The whores will dance naked
like worms in the waterpipes

Excited rivers of whiskey should be flowing
and kilo after kilo of light green marijuana burning
The roulette whieel should be spinning like a crazy snake
and the dollars soothing the savagery of hangovers

"Come to the Colony Hotel,
                                              paradise for orgies!"

They're planning to open it January first.

Francisco X. Alarcón blurbs thusly: "Efraín Huerta is, foremost, the poet/prophet of Mexico City—the heaven and hell that is this postmodern Mestizo megalopolis of the continent."

[Sheila Rocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written for children fanned from the flames of the Mexican Revolution...full of the images of male struggle. Hardened dogs, tatooed, erased from the earth and planted back into her all in the same miserable moment. Todos los chingados. My favorite Mexican poet.