Vanessa Angélica Villarreal and Raquel Salas Rivera: November 21, 2019

Villarreal begins with a land acknowledgement, noting that this reading at San Francisco State takes place on Ohlone land. She speaks to colonization in contemporary U.S.-American life, noting how data mining and ICE raids are forms of recolonization. Villarreal reads her poem “To Actuate,” with a singing portion incorporated. She continues with poems from her book Beast Meridian: “Malinche,” and “Tropical Depression.” “f = [(root) (future)],” and “Settlement," the last poem about her experience with prophetic dreams.

Salas Rivera speaks on the U.S.-centric gaze in a country that looks inward while profiting off of others. They then read from their manuscript, La bella crisis, beginning with a brief untranslatable poem, “esa que besa mi corazón.” The following poems from this ms. are read in their original Spanish followed by the author's English translations: “esa que besa mi corazón," “cada viernes el cine se hace pueblo / every friday the movies become a people,” “la gárgola / the gargoyle,” and “muerto parao.” Salas Rivera closes with “an open casket for Puerto Rican Obituary, for Pedro Pietri.”

Asked about Pedro Pietri, Salas Rivera talks about his work and how, writing from New York, he made an effort to connect and understand Puerto Rico. In response to a question about the writing process, Villarreal talks on various aspects of her life and finding time and balance, and how that has changed her poems. Salas Rivera speaks to what inspires their poems and the themes that drive them. Asked what got them into writing, Villarreal says she started writing in middle school and just grew from there. She refers to writing as “a thing that calls you from your source.” Salas Rivera also talks about their beginning work. The poets discuss astrology and Harry Potter houses. They both find a common theme of trauma in their poems. Both poets respond to a question on writing in community. After a question on how different languages play a factor in their writing, careers and success, Salas Rivera says their first books were published in Puerto Rico, and that was all they ever wanted. They note how translation creates access and space for those who might not have had it before. Villarreal speaks on her journey of being bilingual. After a question on revision and completion, Salas Rivera says you find intuition with time as you get older. Villarreal notes that “revision is like… Hell.” In response to a question on the writing while queer experience, Villarreal says for her, this was the place queerness could arise, for a queer person of color; art was the only refuge and she had no choice but to create queer language, push back, and redefine. Salas Rivera can’t differentiate between the two: writing and queerness come together, hand in hand, and they speak on the queer experience in Puerto Rico. After a remark on psychedelic mushrooms, Villarreal says she finds their use therapeutic; Salas Rivera says they reconstruct the brain.