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The Elements of San Joaquin: poems
A timely new edition of a pioneering work in Latino literature, National Book Award nominee Gary Soto's first collection (originally published in 1977) draws on California's fertile San Joaquin Valley, the people, the place, and the hard agricultural work done there by immigrants. In these poems, joy and anger, violence and hope are placed in both the metaphorical and very real circumstances of the Valley. Rooted in personal experiences—of the poet as a young man, his friends, family, and neighbors—the poems are spare but expansive, with Soto's voice as important as ever. This welcome new edition has been expanded with a crucial selection of complementary poems (some previously unpublished) and a new introduction by the author.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
4 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Gary Soto
136 books247 followersGary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 25, 2018
I received this one from Chronicle Books from C.A. and mine has an updated cover. I love the new cover!
It also has some added poems in this volume. Soto is very aware of his surroundings and this speaks through his penned poems. His identity is defined with his poetry and it is revealed to the reader as the words flow into the reader's thoughts.
Seasons come and go inside the pages with the flavors of the crops. There's a haunting quality in some of these verses. His storytelling is sprinkled with the flavors and varieties of color, sound, smell, and senses of touch. My favorite is on page 55, titled, PHOTO, 1957--that sound is so familiar to my ears as I'm reading this one! A sound that is hard to capture or put words to at all. But, this poet defined it well along with those pinpoints of light, the coldness, and the shadows in the room. I love it. The mood is set and it is a wonderful echo of what is in that photo.
Treat yourself to this new addition of Soto's work.
It also has some added poems in this volume. Soto is very aware of his surroundings and this speaks through his penned poems. His identity is defined with his poetry and it is revealed to the reader as the words flow into the reader's thoughts.
Seasons come and go inside the pages with the flavors of the crops. There's a haunting quality in some of these verses. His storytelling is sprinkled with the flavors and varieties of color, sound, smell, and senses of touch. My favorite is on page 55, titled, PHOTO, 1957--that sound is so familiar to my ears as I'm reading this one! A sound that is hard to capture or put words to at all. But, this poet defined it well along with those pinpoints of light, the coldness, and the shadows in the room. I love it. The mood is set and it is a wonderful echo of what is in that photo.
Treat yourself to this new addition of Soto's work.
May 24, 2018
I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program.
This re-release of this book of poetry, first published in 1977, is an absolute treasure. I'm a poet born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley, not far from where Soto was raised. While I don't share his experience in a Hispanic upbringing, I related strongly to most every poem because he was talking about my home. My land, my neighbors, the smell of the place, the fog, the joy and the toil of the soil. The Sun-Maid Factory that he lived next to was is where I went for a 3rd grade field trip!
Even if I didn't share a home region with the author, I would admire the way he wields language. I can't even count how many times I read a line in this book and thought, 'Wow.' A few of my favorite snippets:
from Piedra:
"The dark water wrinkling
Like the mouth of an old auntie whispering Lord"
from Remedies:
"It won't be long before the pain
Napping inside you
Yawns and blinks awake
And Grandma hums prays hums"
I will be holding on to this book for insight and inspiration, and I now want to read more of Soto's poetry. Quite frankly, I'm in awe of him. He wrote most of these poems when he was quite young, too. I would very much like to see how his voice matured.
This re-release of this book of poetry, first published in 1977, is an absolute treasure. I'm a poet born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley, not far from where Soto was raised. While I don't share his experience in a Hispanic upbringing, I related strongly to most every poem because he was talking about my home. My land, my neighbors, the smell of the place, the fog, the joy and the toil of the soil. The Sun-Maid Factory that he lived next to was is where I went for a 3rd grade field trip!
Even if I didn't share a home region with the author, I would admire the way he wields language. I can't even count how many times I read a line in this book and thought, 'Wow.' A few of my favorite snippets:
from Piedra:
"The dark water wrinkling
Like the mouth of an old auntie whispering Lord"
from Remedies:
"It won't be long before the pain
Napping inside you
Yawns and blinks awake
And Grandma hums prays hums"
I will be holding on to this book for insight and inspiration, and I now want to read more of Soto's poetry. Quite frankly, I'm in awe of him. He wrote most of these poems when he was quite young, too. I would very much like to see how his voice matured.
June 29, 2018
"Already I am becoming the valley,/ A soil that sprouts nothing/ For any of us."
This new edition of Gary Soto's 1977 The Elements of San Joaquin is a welcome reminder of the undeniable fortitude of the farmworkers of California's San Joaquin Valley. Though the book's jacket calls Soto's poems "sparse," they are anything but, instead reflecting the speaker's rich and complex observations of a community that is so often taken for granted in both contemporary art and our society at large.
As he profiles the residents of various towns in the valley, Soto's speaker demonstrates the way in which, for many of these men and women, time is often marked by both manmade and organic patterns: from early morning carpools to the cycles of the harvest, from the rise and fall of the "nibbling" fog to the migrating starlings whose "legs are twigs to grow a new year." The speaker's voice is saturated with nostalgia and longing, but also marked by clear, unflinching references to the hunger and trauma, violence and death that occurred in these once-small agricultural towns.
Like Neruda, Soto has the keen capacity for finding the universal in the particular and the dramatic in the seemingly mundane. In his review of the book, Ilan Stevens, general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, remarks that Soto's "role model was Philip Levine, who encouraged him to see his own neighborhood, indeed his own backyard, as a kingdom." Soto's valley-world is a kingdom, indeed, and not one depicted with saccharine sentimentality, but in all of its tenderness and tragedy.
This new edition of Gary Soto's 1977 The Elements of San Joaquin is a welcome reminder of the undeniable fortitude of the farmworkers of California's San Joaquin Valley. Though the book's jacket calls Soto's poems "sparse," they are anything but, instead reflecting the speaker's rich and complex observations of a community that is so often taken for granted in both contemporary art and our society at large.
As he profiles the residents of various towns in the valley, Soto's speaker demonstrates the way in which, for many of these men and women, time is often marked by both manmade and organic patterns: from early morning carpools to the cycles of the harvest, from the rise and fall of the "nibbling" fog to the migrating starlings whose "legs are twigs to grow a new year." The speaker's voice is saturated with nostalgia and longing, but also marked by clear, unflinching references to the hunger and trauma, violence and death that occurred in these once-small agricultural towns.
Like Neruda, Soto has the keen capacity for finding the universal in the particular and the dramatic in the seemingly mundane. In his review of the book, Ilan Stevens, general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, remarks that Soto's "role model was Philip Levine, who encouraged him to see his own neighborhood, indeed his own backyard, as a kingdom." Soto's valley-world is a kingdom, indeed, and not one depicted with saccharine sentimentality, but in all of its tenderness and tragedy.
October 8, 2020
Chester Rowell, civic leader, speaking
about farmworkers in the Fresno Republican: “The main thing about
the labor supply is to muleize it . . . The supreme qualities of the laborer
are that he shall work cheap and hard, have no union, have no ambitions
and present no human problems . . . Some sort of human mule, with the
hibernating qualities of a bear and the fastidious gastronomic tastes of
the goat, would be ideal, provided he is cheap enough.”
~ From the introduction
The Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto is a collection of poetry originally published in 1977. Soto, poet, essayist, and playwright, is the author of dozens of books. His New and Selected Poems was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Soto writes with simple words that carry deep personal meaning. Growing up in places like Fresno, Stockton and other places in the San Joaquin region brings a certain feeling of poverty, tradition, family, and a richness that develops from the three. Soto's writing of life in the 1950s and 1960s is one memory of a sometimes bleak existence without bitterness. When it's all you know it becomes the norm rather than impoverishment. Not having food and needing to hunt frogs or fish from the canal becomes an adventure with his brother. Nature seems to consist of ants and mice rather than animals most would think to remember. Working the land had a certain pride to it that meant something to those who worked the hoes. The environment no matter how harsh it seems is offset by growing up in a poisoned environment. The poison is manmade. DDT and other chemicals cover the fruit they pick and eat and it infiltrates the entire environment.
Soto's, work updated and revised, carries the message it did in the 1970s. He was a writer and in an almost forgotten term Chicano. His work is a tribute to those who worked the land and lived in poverty to provide food for those who lived a much better life. It is a tribute to the hard work, the loss, and the moments of joy in a simple life; moments that most would not find memorable or even special. Well constructed and well thought out poetry about those who are underappreciated in our society.
about farmworkers in the Fresno Republican: “The main thing about
the labor supply is to muleize it . . . The supreme qualities of the laborer
are that he shall work cheap and hard, have no union, have no ambitions
and present no human problems . . . Some sort of human mule, with the
hibernating qualities of a bear and the fastidious gastronomic tastes of
the goat, would be ideal, provided he is cheap enough.”
~ From the introduction
The Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto is a collection of poetry originally published in 1977. Soto, poet, essayist, and playwright, is the author of dozens of books. His New and Selected Poems was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Soto writes with simple words that carry deep personal meaning. Growing up in places like Fresno, Stockton and other places in the San Joaquin region brings a certain feeling of poverty, tradition, family, and a richness that develops from the three. Soto's writing of life in the 1950s and 1960s is one memory of a sometimes bleak existence without bitterness. When it's all you know it becomes the norm rather than impoverishment. Not having food and needing to hunt frogs or fish from the canal becomes an adventure with his brother. Nature seems to consist of ants and mice rather than animals most would think to remember. Working the land had a certain pride to it that meant something to those who worked the hoes. The environment no matter how harsh it seems is offset by growing up in a poisoned environment. The poison is manmade. DDT and other chemicals cover the fruit they pick and eat and it infiltrates the entire environment.
Soto's, work updated and revised, carries the message it did in the 1970s. He was a writer and in an almost forgotten term Chicano. His work is a tribute to those who worked the land and lived in poverty to provide food for those who lived a much better life. It is a tribute to the hard work, the loss, and the moments of joy in a simple life; moments that most would not find memorable or even special. Well constructed and well thought out poetry about those who are underappreciated in our society.
April 25, 2018
I received this one from Chronicle Books from C.A. and mine has an updated cover. I love the new cover!
It also has some added poems in this volume. Soto is very aware of his surroundings and this speaks through his penned poems. His identity is defined with his poetry and it is revealed to the reader as the words flow into the reader's thoughts.
Seasons come and go inside the pages with the flavors of the crops. There's a haunting quality in some of these verses. His storytelling is sprinkled with the flavors and varieties of color, sound, smell, and senses of touch. My favorite is on page 55, titled, PHOTO, 1957--that sound is so familiar to my ears as I'm reading this one! A sound that is hard to capture or put words to at all. But, this poet defined it well along with those pinpoints of light, the coldness, and the shadows in the room. I love it. The mood is set and it is a wonderful echo of what is in that photo.
Treat yourself to this new addition of Soto's work.
It also has some added poems in this volume. Soto is very aware of his surroundings and this speaks through his penned poems. His identity is defined with his poetry and it is revealed to the reader as the words flow into the reader's thoughts.
Seasons come and go inside the pages with the flavors of the crops. There's a haunting quality in some of these verses. His storytelling is sprinkled with the flavors and varieties of color, sound, smell, and senses of touch. My favorite is on page 55, titled, PHOTO, 1957--that sound is so familiar to my ears as I'm reading this one! A sound that is hard to capture or put words to at all. But, this poet defined it well along with those pinpoints of light, the coldness, and the shadows in the room. I love it. The mood is set and it is a wonderful echo of what is in that photo.
Treat yourself to this new addition of Soto's work.
June 7, 2018
A very nice discovery. This collection of poems, originally published in 1977, evokes the hardship of working in the fields, nature, childhood, etc. Through simple poems, Gary Soto really manages to set an atmosphere.
June 13, 2018
This re-issued 1977 collection of poetry depicting the lives of migrant agricultural laborers should be required reading for US politicians.
August 13, 2021
I’m not sure if this book would hit a reader as deeply as does someone from the San Joaquin Valley. Beautiful.
December 31, 2015
I met Gary a long time ago (1990's) at an author gig where we were on the same panel. I'm sure he doesn't remember me, but I remember him as open, friendly, vulnerable. I liked him immediately. The poems in this early collection were written 20 years before that meeting. These are the poems of an angry young man, but also a man who is open and vulnerable and clearly talented at writing. Subjects include rape, field work, poverty, hard times. And occasionally, the wonder of the world:
In another poem he writes
Not so, Gary, not so...
Stars
At dusk the first stars appear.
Not one eager finger points toward them.
A little later the stars spread with the night
And an orange moon rises
To lead them, like a shepherd, toward dawn.
In another poem he writes
One hundred years from now
There should be no reason to believe
I lived.
Not so, Gary, not so...
February 7, 2008
The Elements of San Joaquin is a stirring collection of poetry. Soto weaves the images of a grim life in California's Central Valley with the mastery of T.S. Eliot. Clumping his work here to the Chicano Lit genre would be a travesty.
January 17, 2016
I requested this book because of the poem, "Street," which is so perfectly cinematic I've been using it to suggest how to write interestingly about place. And now I find out this whole book is stunning: about place and about character. You can taste the dust in your throat.
January 20, 2021
We read many of the poems and discussed them at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club on Zoom on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. PDT. Everyone had a harrowing fog story.
February 3, 2018
I had the pleasure of reviewing an advance review copy of The Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto. This is my unbiased reaction.
In Soto's work, we know we are in the hands of a capable and accomplished author. Soto knows how to use verse to evoke emotions and all of our senses. "Fresno's Westside Blues" is the inaugural poem in this collection and proves that point right away. In the follow-up to this poem, "San Fernando Road," Soto builds a poem out of lines that mostly contain 3-4 words. The effect is evocative and one has to slow down to appreciate all the turns the words take.
Soto captures much in these poems. One of my favorites later in the collection is "Pastoral," where we experience fragments of conversation, an event rendered in verse. "Spirit" works with a similar effect built in "San Fernando Road."
Highly recommended verse.
In Soto's work, we know we are in the hands of a capable and accomplished author. Soto knows how to use verse to evoke emotions and all of our senses. "Fresno's Westside Blues" is the inaugural poem in this collection and proves that point right away. In the follow-up to this poem, "San Fernando Road," Soto builds a poem out of lines that mostly contain 3-4 words. The effect is evocative and one has to slow down to appreciate all the turns the words take.
Soto captures much in these poems. One of my favorites later in the collection is "Pastoral," where we experience fragments of conversation, an event rendered in verse. "Spirit" works with a similar effect built in "San Fernando Road."
Highly recommended verse.
March 21, 2018
The title of this revised and updated version of Soto's first book of poetry uses the word elements, and the poetry is elemental. There is much sun, earth, wind, and water in this book; but there are also many elements of life, the little moments of memory and image. The poems are very much of a time and a place, written in a way that recognizes that they will be future memories or recall moments that have continued to resonate with Soto.
The elements serve to both elevate and decimate. Sun and water can be life giving, Soto and his brother suck on rock salt to keep hunger at bay. But the wind and dust also pummel and choke. There is no hate in this recognition of the elements, there is no malice in their existence, the elements simply are. The only moment of rage, or what comes closest to it comes in the poem The Heart of Justice. And this is reserved for DDT and those who wish to continue its use.
There is an ever presence of time, of what is and as a result of the reading, of what was. An example:
And always
The old one who runs through the cafeteria
This brief fragment of sentence captures a time, a moment, but also a consistency. This action is clearly not something new, but we also recognize that it is also something which no longer is. It is rooted in a particular location, it doesn't matter that we don't know this location, it is enough that Soto knows.
Soto is masterful in this collection of poems and it is highly recommended.
The elements serve to both elevate and decimate. Sun and water can be life giving, Soto and his brother suck on rock salt to keep hunger at bay. But the wind and dust also pummel and choke. There is no hate in this recognition of the elements, there is no malice in their existence, the elements simply are. The only moment of rage, or what comes closest to it comes in the poem The Heart of Justice. And this is reserved for DDT and those who wish to continue its use.
There is an ever presence of time, of what is and as a result of the reading, of what was. An example:
And always
The old one who runs through the cafeteria
This brief fragment of sentence captures a time, a moment, but also a consistency. This action is clearly not something new, but we also recognize that it is also something which no longer is. It is rooted in a particular location, it doesn't matter that we don't know this location, it is enough that Soto knows.
Soto is masterful in this collection of poems and it is highly recommended.
June 5, 2018
The Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto is a beautiful, haunting collection of poems. Divided into three sections, these poems focus on different aspects. Part one is full of gritty poems illuminating the stark reality of the poor and disenfranchised. One of the most haunting among this section is 'The Morning They Shot Tony Lopez, Barber and Pusher Went Too Far’. For me, this is because, though circumstances may have differed, it brought memories of my cousin's murder. Part Two focuses on scenes of nature and agriculture. Yet, even here, there are echoes and shouts speaking to the futility of life. One of the most evocative is near the beginning of the section, and this is 'Weeds’, emphasising both that futility, as of the farmer trying tirelessly to be rid of weeds, and of life’s tenacity, for weeds are notoriously difficult to extinguish. The last part returns to human experience, looking back to a childhood fading. Highly recommended for all who enjoy well-wrought poetry.
***Many thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
***Many thanks to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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