“It is as dangerous for a writer to try a new language as it is for a believer to try a new religion: he can lose his soul.” Replace “writer” with “individual” and “language” with “culture” and these words, inscribed in the back of a 1971 Caetano Veloso record, offer a salient commentary to the sentiments of Rodolfo Corky Gonzales’ epic poem “I Am Joaquin."
Arriving at a theme that universally describes the poem is something of a struggle, as the message seems to evolve throughout, moving from despondence to defiance. Few lines in this poem illustrate its initial lost, dejected tone better than those that open it. “Yo soy Joaquin/ perdido en un mundo de confusion/ I am Joaquin, lost in a world of confusion.” In his repetition of this statement –once in English, once in Spanish- the speaker shows a growing dichotomy between his distinctly Mexican roots and the Anglo-American culture he sees himself becoming increasingly assimilated by. He feels trapped; he must either abandon his roots and adopt the norms society is slowly moving toward or live as an impoverished pariah in his own ancestral home.
A certain rage seems to envelop the speaker as he realizes that yes, this is HIS people’s home that is being forced to change by a stranger’s influence. He envisages himself as all his forebears, ranging from Spaniards fighting off Moors to Pancho Villa, people he views as noble defenders of Mexican freedom and cultural sanctity. Recalling his heroes, Joaquin turns disgusted with himself and the nature of his current hardships. His history has become insignificant and his people have become complacent in inferiority. The United States has supplanted Mexico, taking everything it found to be of some use and claiming credit for it. The tone of anger with which the speaker relays this more recent history suggests that he has overcome his earlier confusion and is ready to fight for his culture with clarity and purpose.
Growing in passion, the speaker mockingly suggests that, in its ransacking of Mexican culture, the United States missed what was truly vital. Nature, brotherhood, the art of Rivera and Sequeiros, music, tradition, unity; all these things survived unadulterated. In spite of everything that has been taken from Mexico and its people, the most important pieces of its culture live on. With this knowledge, Joachim declares his spirit strong, his faith unbreakable, his blood pure, and that he, if no one else, will not assimilate.
For someone like the speaker, heritage is identity. Perhaps this is the theme that most permeates “I Am Joaquin.” Complacently integrating into a culture that has, according to Joaquin, repeatedly proven its malicious intent towards your people is nothing short of treason of the soul. The choice, in the end, is not between fitting in and living uncomfortably. It is between giving up, condemning your culture to ignominy and death; and struggling on, ensuring that which is most important to you in this world is never forgotten.
In studying this poem, I found it rather difficult to understand how it was that someone could feel so strongly about his heritage. What drives the speaker and those with similar views to accord this aspect of their lives such a high degree of importance?
