An Afternoon with Dolores Huerta ~ Sunday, August 8, 2004 ~ and a Spanish Sonnet for You

If you live in California and/or are Latina/o and/or a social activist and/or are simply familiar with the civil rights movement in this country (hell, if you have a pulse), then you know Dolores Huerta, the most prominent Chicana labor leader in the United States, and the co-founder (along with César E. Chavez) and First Vice President of the United Farm Workers union.

When Dolores received a $100,000 award for her lifetime of service, she gave the money away to be used as the seed money for the Dolores C. Huerta Foundation. Recognizing that "immigrants are the new civil rights movement," the Foundation's mission is to train a new generation of organizers to build informed Communities of Conscience, working for fair and equal access to health care, housing, education, jobs, civic participation, and economic resources for disadvantaged communities with an emphasis on women and youth.

Help support the Foundation and La Causa at An Afternoon With Dolores Huerta and Friends on Sunday, August 8, 2004, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Join Francisco X. Alarcón, one of the nation's most prominent Chicano poets, Kaylah Marin, singer-songstress-poet-artist, and Dolores' many friends at Café de la Paz at 1600 Shattuck in Berkeley, CA, (510) 843-0662. If you can't be there, well, please consider mailing your tax-deductible contribution to: Dolores C. Huerta Foundation, 255 Ninth Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94103. ~ :)

Tickets for the Buffet and Program are $60, or Sponsors at $100, $250, or $500, and Founding Members at $1,000. To RSVP or for more information, call (415) 621-2665.

I can't wait to attend this event, not just to support the Foundation but because Francisco X. Alarcón is one of my all-time favorite poets, and his book de Amor Oscuro - Of Dark Love is by far one of the most intense, passionate collection of poems I have read on love and loss ~~ I am going to take my tattered copy next Sunday and hope he signs it for me. The book is hard to find but you can probably order it directly from the publisher. The collection features 14 sonnets in Spanish, with facing page translations in English by Francisco Aragón (who translated Federico Garcí­a Lorca's poetry). Here, then, is my favorite (the English version, pero aquí­ está la versión en Español):

XI
since I met you on the road,I am no longer the same, a blind manno more, tripping on his own shadow,I am no longer deaf to landscapes
to follow you swiftly I've tossed asidemy cross, rid myself of those violinsalways playing soap opera tunes,I no longer walk, I run barefoot
ever since I heard the rumor of your voice,all other words ring hollow to me useless, cumbersome, bewitching
this is why I no longer want to write poemsbut live them with you: embersblazing in a fire outside language

What or who has opened your eyes and ears to a different vision and different tune in life? What makes you run and shine and blaze with life and live it out loud? Ai, my list is long.....

Comments

[Unknown]

hello we would like it if you would post more information of Dolores Huerta please. Thank You so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joanne Forman]

I'm SO delighted to learn of the Dolores Huerta Foundation! (I found this site re news on her appearance at the opening of the prison in Delano.) I knew Dolores way back during the Grape Strike, when I was a volunteer; one of the press secretaries for the Peregrinacion.

I'm a composer by trade, and have completed "Journey to the Light: a Requiem for Cesar Chavez. I would like to let Dolores know about this, and seek her help with getting this performed and recorded (for the benefit of her foundation and/or the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation.)
Can you provide an e-mail address? Thanks for your attention!

[seyd]

I so wish I was in Berkely right now.I did not anything about Francisco X. Alarcón, so thank you for introducing me to this work. I am glad to find another accomplished gay Chicano poet. Oh, and your blog is the best, keep it up!