Overview

Following up on City on the Second Floor and Mowing Leaves of Grass, Sedillo returns to FlowerSong Press with Mexican Style written with his signature dynamic urgency and brimming with historic references and allusions this latest collection represents Sedillo's most ambitious work to date. In this collection Sedillo explores themes of struggle and identity and devotion to a cause and a people. Throughout we find a different more playful side of Sedillo with nods, homages, reinterpretations in this collection to the works of Rulfo, Marquez, Bunuel, Gogol Varda just to name a few. This book is an adventure.

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9781963245530

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Reviews

What, to Chicanismo is the Poet? What, to the Poet is Chicanismo? Nolan L. Cabrera, PhD The homie Matt Sedillo has done it again! In his current collection of poetry Mexican Style, be prepared to go on a beautiful, intense, critical, community-oriented, wild ride. This work is socially critical of the numerous mechanisms of anti-Brownness and capitalist exploitation, while also being deeply introspective. It dives into celebrations of the culture while also finding parts of the culture problematic. The through point is always the poet. It may be the poet lodging cultural criticism (e.g., Ode to Calo). It may be a poet celebrating la cultura (e.g., Mexican Style). It may be a deep introspective exploration (e.g., I, Chicano and Sedillo on the Brink of Death). Collectively, they challenge the reader to see the world through different eyes - eyes that both condemn oppression while also being honest about the inherent contradictions within our communities. Reading this text, I was consistently reminded of Audrey Lorde's classic text ""Poetry is not a luxury."" Within this, she offered: Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundation for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been possible. Here in lies the beauty and possibility of Sedillo's poetry. By doing the deep work within the community, his insightful vision engages the possibility and potential for a future that currently does not exist. Sedillo accomplishes this with a deeply humanizing text, and it is also one that asks a lot of the reader. The allusions come fast and frequently. Even as a professor (by courtesy) in Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, I still sometimes had to rely on the University of Google to understand the depth of Matt's poetry (e.g., The Assassinations of Ruben Salazar). I mean this as a compliment, and a testament to the depth of this anthology. One of the most striking features of this text is the boldness and courage to engage the full range of human experiences. While ""LOL"" is one of the most overused and misused terms in texting, I literally found myself LOLing in when reading the text like when Sedillo offered: We didn't ask To be born Mexican We just got lucky -Taco Trucks, Every Corner Additionally, that poem spoke to a deep political engagement. The title came from ""Agent Orange's"" 2016 presidential campaign when his director of Latino outreach had the gall to say that a ""Taco truck on every corner"" would be the outcome if Hilary was elected - as if that is a bad thing!!! Flipping this ridiculous assessment on its head, Sedillo uses it as a way of envisioning a future where Brown folks are no longer minoritized. Within the poem, Sedillo lists the range of tacos available (Con asada, Lengua, Al Pastor, Carnitas, Cabeza, Chicharron, Cebolla y limon, Salsa y chile, Rojo y verde), making me hungry through cultural pride on the printed page. This is the essence of Sedillo's text. There is humor coupled with searing social critique coupled with cultural exploration coupled with heartbreak. I was reminded of Cornel West's observation that, ""Jesus weeps, but never laughs. Just like Socrates never cried."" That is, many of our core archetypes of humanity are extremely limited in their range of human expression. In contrast, Sedillo's text boldly engages the full range of our collective Chicanismo - with all its tensions and contradictions. He loves the community. He is rooted in the community. He is real about the community. And He is fiercely critical of White supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism. For me, to poem Mexican Style is the center of the text. Engaging with Mexican boxing leading to Mex

Author Information

Matt Sedillo has been described as the ""best political poet in America"" by investigative journalist and documentarian Greg Palast as well as ""the poet laureate of the struggle"" by Professor and Hitorian Paul Ortiz. Sedillo's work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival, the 2023 Palabra Del Mundo Festival in Venice, Italy, the recipient of the 2022 Dante's Laurel, a panelist at the 2023 Guadalajara Book Fair a panelist at the 2023 FIL Mineria, a plenary speaker at the 14th Biennal Conference of the Hungarian Association of American Scholars, a reader at the 2024 Medillin Poetry Festival, and a reader at the 2024 Boao Festival in Thailand. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press, La Jornada, NPR among many other publications and broadcasts. Sedillo has spoken at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, Dante's Basilica in Ravenna Italy, at numerous conferences and forums such as the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies, the Left Forum, the US Social Forum, and at over a hundred universities and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, UNAM, and Stanford, among many others. Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press, 2022). Both of which are taught at universities throughout the country. Sedillo is the current literary director of The Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, the National Coordinator of the World Poetry Movement US, the Co-Founder of El Martillo Press, and Lead Host of Radio La Raza on KPFK 90.7.

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