Benjamin Garcia Reading

This afternoon I attended a reading from the poet, Benjamin Garcia. Firstly, I think that Benjamin Garcias poems are very relevant to what we learn in class. He includes many of his experiences of being part of the LGBTQ community as well as being Mexican in his poetry. He explains that some of his poems show a more vulnerable side of him. One of his poems, “The Warrior Song,” made me feel it could be applied to “A Raisin in the Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry. Garcia opens the poem with, “When our mothers had no water for themselves, we drank.” (Garcia line 1.)  Instantly, from this line, I thought of Mama. I connected this with Mama because she was always giving all she had to her family, even when she felt hopeless, or didn’t have much. Garcia spoke about how he grew up poor and how people always told him to get grades and do well in school so he could “be rich and not need to worry about things. I think this is significant to “A Raisin in the Sun” as well. A major theme that arises in the play is the American Dream. The Younger family is trying to live out their American Dream and make it out of poverty. Garcia explained how when making poetry his focus, he had in mind that it would not bring him a lot of money. He is passionate about the idea that doing what you want is very important. Clearly, this idea is valid considering Garcia turned out to be a very successful writer. Another line also from “The Warrior Song” that spoke to me was, “When we had no passport, our blood was our passport.” (Garcia lines 7 and 8.) Of course, in all literature, there are different ways of interpreting what things mean. Well, in my eyes I thought of a passport and how a passport is very accessible to some while for others it is a very difficult thing to attain. For example, people not living in America and such. I feel that the fragment of the line “our blood was our passport,” represents the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears some people must persevere in order to do the things someone could do so easily with a passport. Last semester, I was a Chemistry education major. I switched to English education this semester, so I was really fascinated in hearing about Garcia’s story as a writer. Garcia was explaining how sometimes the key ingredient to writing is failure. He shared a quote from one of his former professors that was along the lines of mistakes being beautiful. I think this is an important message he was trying to portray because he also added that no matter what, the mistakes you make in writing will inevitably aid in your success with any type of writing you are trying to pursue. Overall, I have left this reading with a lot to think about. It was really awesome hearing a writer read their own poems because of course it will be read the way they intended it to be read.