This poem was read at Dr. Sánchez's altar ceremony during Día de los Muertos at the Los Paisanos Gallery in the Chamizal National Memorial.

Ricardoalidad  ©1996 by Roberto Barcena

undulating waves of
facial contortions
reflect electromagnetic
vibrations traveling

within and between 
each verse diversified 
in multiple realization 
of human capacity;

he walked, he talked and 
he thought erectly, 
indomitably; never budging 
from the perch

where eagle-visioned
sharpened blades
dissected the pompous
veneer of our world

para llegar  a la neta. . . 
la neta
-the absolute truth-
was his quest. . .

like a conquistador 
he sought gold; that is, 
the gold that is within 
each person and when he

found it:
he celebrated wildly,
unphilosophically,
genuinely;

sin rajarse, sin venderse 
never caring that he risked 
being called unwise, 
imprudent or simply 
un bato loco

for this celebration 
was the cosmic code
embedded within him that 
led him on the road 
to authenticity;

reclamando y demandando 
that that was 
our reason to exist-
our only reason to exist,

he rode the waves of 
intergalactic time/space 
zooming in and out of 
multidimensional awareness.

pero como un hombre 
y como un poeta 
siempre tuvo los pies 
en la tierra;

his existential will 
to be chicano 
rode side by side
his universal wanderings.

choosing and accepting
this planter from which
to launch cosmic
incantations,

his voice was a thunderous 
deep-toned, melodic, 
hypnotic reflection 
of his spirit

spewing verbs, adjectives, 
and nouns darting dancingly 
from mental orbits 
like jazzed particles.

each rocket-propelled word 
blasted off the lips of his pen 
crumbling the walls 
of mediocrity.

as re-verb-erations of his 
word/sounds invigorated 
with beams of hope 
empty searching mind/souls

-Ricardo! How you rejoiced 
in life and how you 
celebrated each moment 
each nano-second!--

prison was but a feeble 
attempt to stifle 
his spirit, but he remained 
sentient and strong. . .

he bragged at his survivability 
never championing a hollywoodized 
idolization of pinto-ness 
for prison was

a difficult, dehumanizing
epoch-nothing that any sane
humane being should exalt
or lightly urge of another;

cada momento 
se desbordaba-
complejo y completo;
sencillo y sincero.

he overflowed beyond 
classifications as 
piercing eyes squeezed 
out a sea of dreams

-he fought for raza 
because he was raza 
but he was far beyond 
such naming;

human liberation for him 
as a chicano, as a Ricardo 
Sánchez Phd., was through 
a chicanismo

spiralling outward 
and intersecting with other 
spirals forming a 
web of mutual humanity

that sought not power 
for power's sake 
but sought a strength, 
a firmness, a wholeness

vital to counter 
the chic and the 
chicane that deters 
the unity needed to

unfold and blossom 
within the cosmologic 
syncopations of love 
and humanness.