Although she acknowledges strong literary roots in the mythology and storytelling traditions of her culture, Tamez fights against the assumption that these fairy tales are all they have to offer, and encourages work that flows from cultural and social issues and are firmly based in reality. She has published several volumes of such poetry, including the chapbook Alleys and Allies, Naked Wanting, and Raven Eye. Naked Wanting Naked Wanting offers readers a collection of poems linked to nature and stressing the ways in which human beings are out of step with the natural world around them. Tamez's strong interest in ecology and preserving the environment peeks through some of the poems, while other works are more subtle and challenge the reader's perceptions of normality. In "Inhaling Two Worlds," a pregnant woman driving a car finds herself all but joined with the vehicle, trapped by the technology that is supposed to simplify her existence. Visceral, shocking images are the focus of "A Speed Zone, Inside Out," where the narrator stops by the side of the road where a raven is dying and, rather than saving it or putting it out of its misery, proceeds to rip off its wings and take its heart. Jarret Keene, in a review for the Tucson Weekly Web site, commented of the collection: "Sure, there are missteps. ... But these are few and far between the larger greatness that Tamez offers. ... Naked Wanting is a book we hunger for and yearn to wrap around us like a blanket." Raven Eye The poems in Raven Eye take a more personal turn and focus on the social and racial issues that concern Tamez. Women and children, in particular, struggle to find their place in the world within the context of her poems, and simple places such as borders take on grander meanings. Tamez's “Corazon wakes up to watch the sky” You and me at night, on the rez, no lights no lights, at night, no electric at night, no running water, no plumbing, nothing wet but us, at night, so we piss outside under the stars, they're brighter on the rez, at night on the rez sometimes we see UFOs, under the stars, when the witnesses to truth die, when they die at night, and we're finished pissing, we finish our moment at night, then stand, under the stars, standing naked last night, we saw his star fast fast, it went from east to west, from east to west his fast light went, you had just said how they go in 5's or 7's two went at Salt River and others at Gila, his fast star we saw, standing naked you and me we saw him, our witness, fly across the sky, the power of the chilis made life together possible. Full Text of Tamez's The Digging Hole
In the back field The memory of men slaughtering spring pigs Throwing beer cans to the ground Callously joking about the potent liver The looping coils of intestines curds of fat cells clinging deftly To the thick heart This morning the pumice-bones dark and brittle Still hang by the ropes clattering messages from the underworld Odd wind chimes rattle and chitter the discontent The night fills limply with humid pale clouds Exhausted from days of storms Meek implications of spent rage Soon rains will soften the skies Spread their dank minds As thin as grandma's old scarves How the water smells like more than any of us ever were In common Tomorrow I'll see the stump of a dead cotton wood Viewed and considered each morning Near the road to town on dark mornings My headlights streak by fast Like a well-aimed spear The stump stares back at me Its gnarled shape like a man hunched over Repentant His chin digging a hole through his chest And his back twisted--ashamed and punished For all his cruelty For all he denies Tomorrow's freedoms have no sleeves Exposing skin to air heat chemicals The unwanted unlawful touch Is the thread this weaves looping into air Into a web or a nest "Sorrow! Sorrow!" The sun says with a sudden mouth Dismissing my knowledge behind a stone-smooth cloud Clouds smoothed flat by the storm's palm Where it was recently the fist ripping open sky Ripping the cervix brisk quick wide The ones huddling and waiting out the storm Get flattened across the certainty of a coming front The sun wrecks pulling their voices under with it To the kiln Though resisting They tilt their faces to the sky As if it is the last jar on earth with water The word etched on the bottom of its bowl Change More on the Book Naked Wanting In her book Naked Writing Tamez explores the effects of the militarization of the border: After serving for many years as a nurse at the Veteran's Affairs Hospital in San Antonio, Tamez's mother returns to Calaboz, the home where her Lipan ancestors once resided and what is now Texas and Tamaulipas. While jogging along the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, she is perceived as la migra (the derogatory term used by agents of the U.S. Border Patrol who stop migrants from slipping into the U.S.): "They think she runs away from them, / that she is an illegal, / trespassing from Mexico" (Naked Writing 61). She stopps, turns around, and in loud Spanish (although she speaks perfect English), challenges the validity and legality of the border. The question she poses are powerful: "how exactly do they know / if she came from here, or there ... I am an indigenous woman, / born in El Calaboz, you understand?" (61). In writing about this event, Tamez illustrates how the militarization of the region creates a place where so-called "Natives" clash with "illegal aliens." Her mother's proud statement challenges the categorization of the Tamaulipas Lipan-Apache as "aliens," and her words raise questions about what it means to be "Native," "Indigenous," or "Indian." If the U.S. government does not recognize the Lipan and Jumano as sovereign Indian nations, how can they be "Native"? Or even "Indian"? When Tamez's mother claims her indigeneity, she invokes the history of the Lipan people, who once moved freely throughout the region. She challenges the most evident manifestation of the nation state--the border--and the way the Border Patrol supports and maintains multinational maquiladora factories, the extraction of wealth from migrant workers, and the militarization of the region. She takes a stand against the ways the border negatively impacts the daily lives of indigenous people. References Erdrich, H. E. Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers On Community (Native Voices). 2002. Tamez Works Tamez, Margo. Alleys and Allies. Saddle Tramp Press. 1992. Tamez, Margo. The Daughter of Lightning. Tucson: Kore P. 2006. Tamez, Margo. Naked Wanting. Tucson: U of Arizona P. 2003. Tamez, Margo. Raven Eye. Tucson: U of Arizona P. 2007. |
Margo Tamez Apache |