Posts tagged Wisconsin

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FIBS:

Memorial Day signals the start of the summer travel season. Among those taking to the Wisconsin roads will be visitors from Illinois — people Wisconsinites love to hate. Writer Patrick Somerville reflects on both Wisconsin’s and his own conflicted relationship with Illinois.

Patrick Somerville is the author of several books, including his latest novel This Bright River.

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Lost and Found Language:

Cinco de Mayo is the annual celebration of Mexican heritage, and one of the fastest growing holidays in America. Today, Wisconsin poet and school principal Oscar Mireles shares the story of his struggle to hold onto his first language – Spanish. His poem is called “Lost and Found Language.”

Oscar Mireles is the principal of Omega School in Madison. He’s been writing poems for 25 years and is the editor of two anthologies, called “I Didn’t Know There Were Latinos in Wisconsin.”

Lost and Found Language

It started in 1949, when my oldest brother
came home from school
in Racine, Wisconsin
after flunking kindergarten
because he ‘spoke no English’
and declared to my parents
that ‘the rest of the kids have to learn to speak English
if we planned on staying here in the United States.’

so my parents lined up
the rest of the seven younger children
had us straighten up
tilt our heads back
reached in our mouth with their hands
and took turns
slicing our tongues in half

making a simple, but unspoken contract
that from then on
the parents would speak Spanish
and the children would respond
back only in English

how do you lose a native language?
does it get misplaced
in the recesses of your brain?
or does it never quite stick to the sides
of your mind?

for me it would always start
with the question
from a brown faced stranger
‘hables espanol? ’
which means
‘do you speak Spanish? ’

which meant
if they had to ask me
if I spoke Spanish
this was not going to be a good start for
at having a conversation…

my face would start to get flushed
with redness and before
I had a chance to stammer
the words
‘I don’t’

I could see it in their eyes
looking at my embarrassed face
searching for an answer
that they already knew

as I walked away
I know they were thinking
‘Who is this guy? ’
‘How can he not speak his mother’s tongue? ’
‘Where did he grow up anyways? ’
‘Doesn’t he have any pride
in knowing who he is? ’
or ‘Where he came from? ’

I tried to reply,
but as the words in Spanish
floated down from my brain
they caught in my teeth,
the rocks of shame.
I spoke in half-tongue.

my future wife
taught me how
to speak Spanish
mainly
by being Colombian
and not speaking English

and I had already known
the language of hands and love
which got me confident enough
to reach deep inside
myself
to find the beautiful sounds and latin rhythms
that laid deep within me

and although
I still feel my heart jump a beat
when someone asks ‘hables espanol? ’
now the Spanish resonates within me
and echos back ‘si, y usted tambien? ’


and today as I talk with the Spanish speaking students
in our school
they can not only feel my words
they can feel my warm heart
splash ancient Spanish sounds off
my native tongue
that has finally grown whole again.

Oscar Mireles

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Earth Day - Plants:

Sunday is Earth Day, a day for appreciating and thinking about our natural environment. Writer Jill Sisson Quinn brought a little nature into her classroom with a few potted plants. What happened to those plants got her thinking about how we treat the planet.

Jill Sisson Quinn is a nature writer and teacher in Central Wisconsin.

Photo by green.thumbs.

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Spring Warblers:

Spring warblers are beginning to make their way through Wisconsin right now. Today, writer Mary Ellen Gabriel recalls the spring she finally learned how to spot them.

Mary Ellen Gabriel is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Midwest Living, Horticulture Magazine, Wisconsin Trails, and the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Photo by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region.

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“I’ll Take a Walk” - Count This Penny

Singer-songwriters Amanda and Allen Rigell of the band Count This Penny share a song inspired by one soldier’s letters home.

Count This Penny is an Appalachian pop band based in Madison, Wisconsin—by way of East Tennessee. They write songs born of time spent walking old dogs and doggedly traveling to and from the hills of home.

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Stand-Up Paddleboarding:

Stand-up paddleboarding is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world. Spreading from Hawaii to the coasts, it’s now making its way to inland waters, including the rivers and lakes of Wisconsin. Commentator James Mills takes us out for a paddle.

James Mills is a freelance journalist and the Midwest corespondent for SUP Magazine.

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Kitchens:

Writer Michael Perry has been thinking about the places he loves most. One of them is a kitchen – and not just any kitchen. This one changed his life.

Michael Perry is an author, humorist, singer/songwriter and amateur pig farmer. He hosts Tent Show Radio at Big Top Chatauqua, his most recent book is called “Coop” and we just heard a bit from his band, The Long Beds.

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