Febuary 14, 1988-San Antonio Express-News

Arts quackery and valentines

In between many moments of hearing poetry by such new visionaries as Lisa Fenton from Houston or from Denise Chávez, a manita playwright and writer, there are also those other kinds of cultural "understandings."

There is, for example, the baffling commentary by Sen. Judith Zaffini about cultural realization via Donald Duck quacking away at "Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes" a song beseeching Jalisenses not to back down.

It was at the Segundo de Febrero commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo sponsored by Centro Cultural Aztlán at the Gunter.

There was poetry there, as well as folkloric dancing, and ritual, albeit allegedly sacred, danza by concheros a la Aztec.

The political slate of speakers was almost a complete who's who of Hispanic politicos and we were treated to Daffy, I mean Donald, Duckerismos.

While paying tribute to the great cultural contribution by Walt Disney, the meaning of the conchero danza was relegated to ignoble ends. It was heralded in a half-hearted manner as entertainment.

SPIRITUAL CEREMONY

It was a new one to me, for the lore about the concheros is that they are ritual dancers who are offering a spiritual ceremony to the creator.

Maybe it is a sign of the times, or it could be that the concheros are getting ready to take a rich, cultural and spiritual expression to the legitimate stage,

Maybe Centro Cultural Aztlán was helping the danzantes prepare for a run on Broadway.

I can just see the senator introducing the danzantes: "Señoras y señores, direct from Disneylandia, we bring you 'Los Daffy Cheros,' who will thrill you with cultural authenticity and help you understand panic mine, yours and his." All done on a day that allegedly speaks to culture and arts by a community cultural center that relegates poetry, art and other cultural/spiritual expressions to the outer reaches of looney tunas.

Maybe someone ought to remind the danzantes that theirs is a sacred ritual, one that is not meant to be denigrated to the status of entertainment

La danza is by definition a manifestation of belief, a spiritual expression to be honored and respected.

I can understand a politician's not being aware of cultural values and taboos, but a center that is predicated on preserving the values and spiritual understandings of a people should strive to respect la danza.

Now we have to take in ducky daffynitions of cultural realization and enhancement by a politician no less.

To top it all off, much of the goofiness of cultural programming is paid for from tax monies, and those funds have come from working people facing difficult economic straits.

It wouldn't be quite as bad if local artists were at least surviving from their art.

In fact, no one would begrudge the bureaucrats and cultural functionaries their salaries if they were to help the creators of art also live from the arts.

It would also help if the programmers of arts and cultural events were to respect the performers they are presenting. It would also be a good and appropriate gesture on the part of the politicians if they would stay and listen to the poetry and pay heed to the cultural programming. They shouldn't have jumped out of their seats and left as soon as they said their pieces and preened for the votes. After all most of those politicians did speak about cultural values and the need to preserve them. As an invited poet, I was amazed at the level of insensitivity by the stampeding politicos. I am also tired of seeing poorly run centers do a ludicrous job of programming.

AUDIENCES LACKING

The millions of dollars that have been spent on cultural programs have seemingly not resulted in truly significant audiences or in the professional development of a significant amount of area talent.

It would be wonderful on Valentine's Day to send loving greetings to arts program directors, but I can only wince when thinking of the massacre of aspiration in places that should already have made a significant impact on the arts.

But Valentine's being what it is, there are some poems lurking about in my feelings, poems of friendship and joy dedicated to poets and performers who struggle alone and far from the palaces of public funding. One such stalwart is Lisa Fenton, a Houston poet who writes powerful verses of resistance and humanscapes. There are Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherrie Moraga, Denise Chávez, Carolyn Forché, Pat Ellis Taylor and many other gifted poets whose spirited works dance through the mind.

There is the beauty of family, a wife and daughter whose visages reside within my feelings, within all of the magic of love and concomitant life struggles. There are also poems to readers and listeners of poetry and music who do deserve caressive verses, and there are my sons and grandson, as well as a great number of kin and friends from other spaces and times who are recalled fondly.

POETIC QUACKERY

There are all those wonderful persons who have shared inspiration and hope, as well as the understandings and means to realization. All those struggling, even homeless, artists who create in spite of their marginal status.

And always is there a community of being, sentient and wizened, and which has given to each of us a multifaceted cultural scenario - a kaleidoscope of humanscapes in all nuances, accents and images possible. There is even a bit of poetic quackery to be shared, a childhood image of lunacy - all part of the human condition - from massacred poetry to verses of luv. Happy Valentine's Day, plebe!