Poet and Cal Poly ethnic studies graduate Rudy Gutierrez will perform at Raza Speaks: Flor y Canto, a poetry reading from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on Saturday, Oct. 27.
This quarterly event is an open-mic poetry and music night founded and hosted by modern languages and literatures professor Gloria Velasquez. She has been teaching at Cal Poly for 23 years with an emphasis on Latin American and Chicano/a literature.
Guiterrez performs at most readings and chants an indigenous prayer before beginning. He will be the featured poet at this reading.
“This [event] was something I wanted to do because I come from the renaissance of Chicano artistic production of the 1960s,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez said Chicano artists and musicians would gather all over the country during the renaissance era to share art that portrayed Pre-Columbian Aztec mythology and a harmony with nature.
This was the concept of flower and song, “flor y canto.” In a broader sense, the art alluded to the oral tradition with an emphasis on nature. The works were for “Raza.”
“‘Raza’ is the power of the whole people,” said Karen Evangelista, daughter of the founders of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.
Velasquez wanted to relive this cultural movement by starting an open-mic poetry and music gathering in a diverse community outside of San Luis Obispo.
“The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center provided the perfect venue,” she said.
Guadalupe is a historic city where the Cesar Chavez farmworker movement took place. The Cultural Arts Center is a yellow, Victorian house in the middle of town. It is also home to the Guadalupe Sports Hall of Fame and the Chamber of Commerce. The space is warm and inviting and when many gather, it becomes its own community, Evangelista said.
“We don’t use a microphone,” Evangelista said as an example. “Some people don’t speak loud so we become very quiet.”
The center was established five years ago, and Evangelista said it holds many multicultural events for the community and aims to preserve the culture of Guadalupe.
In 1993, minority teachers at Cal Poly were involved in a movement to establish an ethnic studies department. The founders of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Joe and Margie Talaugon, Evangelista’s parents, were involved in the movement and met Velasquez at that time. Velasquez contacted her old friends in hopes of using their venue for her poetry night, and since Sept. 2006 her dream has been a reality.
Velasquez said the main objectives of the poetry night are to inspire and mentor youths, to promote diversity and cultural awareness and to incorporate all members of the community.
“It’s an atmosphere that’s social and inspiring,” Evangelista said.
At the last reading, young men from the Los Prietos Boys Camp, a juvenile hall, went on a field trip to the center and recited some hip-hop-style poetry. Elders regularly come to the event to recite poetry about their indigenous or Latino communities. High school students from surrounding towns perform and even the mayor of Guadalupe has recited in the past.
Evangelista said the poetry nights have “brought people from out of the community to come out and express themselves.”
She mentioned that the poetry readings have allowed her parents to rekindle relationships with people they have known for many years through the arts and their political activism.
In the past, poems have been read in Nahuatl, a native Aztec language, French, Spanish and English. Evangelista said some sessions have had more Spanish-speaking than English-speaking poets.
“In essence I think it fills the cultural pluralism requirement,” Velasquez said.
Each reading has a different theme depending on the time of the year. The Oct. 27 performance will honor indigenous ancestors. Velasquez usually opens the reading with a poem or a song; this month, she will feature a song about her Navajo roots.
The event is free and open to the public. Anyone who wishes to read, sing or perform in any language may sign up the night of the event.