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The LWC is such a dynamic group of poets, writers and artists...the energy created at this event comes through Xanath Caraza's review. Adelante LWC y gracias, Xanath.

SPIK EASY

Defining a person, a human being, is never an easy task. One is never the sum total of our parts, or should I say, compartments. I am Dominican born and my mother had to make me eat yuca for breakfast as any Dominican should. I guess I was not just any Dominican. Well, now I like it, specially if it is soaked in nostalgia at El Floridita at 126th Street there in Harlem. I guess I finally became a true Dominican after all this years of not living in DR. I pity anybody that have to choose on single word to fill up a blank less than one inch long. They had to choose something. I guess Hispanic for Spanish spiking took then out of their misery. The people from Spain should be in that bunch as well. Latino is for everybody with a language derived from Latin. So Italian, French and Portuguese should be there too. We are "the other" as everybody else is also the other for us. La Otredad hasta en los huesos, mijo. Waiting for the other to find the proper definition of our soul, is like asking them to give us an identity, almost asking them for the breath of life.
Puerto Rican writer Pedro Juan Soto wrote a book of short stories in 1956, SPIKS. I think long before (don't quote me on this one) the word Chicano was claimed as a badge of pride. And then the Niggers followed. Maybe is time for us Spiks to take back the word.

Lots to think about and argue for and against in Mayra's essay. Well done.

I was agreeing with and enjoying the previous commenter's (Mercedes Villaman) response until the last couple lines.

I don't think the term "Chicano" in any way compares to how the term "N--" has been used as an expression of hate and racism. In fact, I don't really understand what the commenter meant by "and then the N---s followed."

Chicana/Chicano is certainly now a self-identifier used with pride, but I don't think the N-word has or ever will. Probably rightly so.

Lourdes, I agree with your comment and I'm not clear on what Mercedes meant when she used the "N" word. Mercedes, would you please further explain?

"And then the Niggers followed. Maybe is time for us Spiks to take back the word."

What does this mean?

I never bought the bullshit about taking back the N word. Why would I want to own something that was only ever meant to hurt and scar in an indelible way?

I might not understand how Chicano is used or the debate surrounding it but I can't relate to why you'd compare it let alone fully use the N word.

And while a writer of your heritage has every right to entitled a book SPIK, believe me, I'd never would like many white people have stupidly done with the N word call you S-K. It's so out of line and it boggles my mind why we don't know when to remain outside a culture's own boundaries.

Sorry you took it that way. SPIKS is a beautiful book full of color and light. Pedro Juan Soto was a great writer (Wikipedia for quick info)We are not what people think or say we are. The word Nigger, that you don't dare to write, comes from the river Niger. Listen to the songs, poems, movies, books, jokes of... can I say Black Americans? They use the N word a lot, they own the word and not the other way around. I do have the impression that the Chicanos started to own that word as a way of dis-empower the ones that used to offend. They started the trend. That's what I meant by "and then the N... oops, I almost said it, followed. I base my opinion on observation of how the word is used today. But that is my opinion without intention to hurt or offend. In the movie Bulworth (1998)Halle Berry tells Warren Beatty, "You know you are my nigger". That line makes the movie. I learned the word Chicano the first I heard Carlos Santana playing his guitar in. And I learned the word Spik on that beautiful book. I did not meant to hurt anybody.

its really very nice article and so much informative thanks for sharing this with us..

Mercedes,

Offended and hurt feelings are not the same for me. My feelings are not hurt and while you want to give me the origin of the word, that's not point. My point is the social and historical references.

I offered my opinion and that is that not all blacks embrace Nigger. Does that work for you now that I've written it? There is no power in using it that is why I don't.

You also did not acknowledge my other point which I think matters and that is to consider it is inappropriate for members outside of a group to use a word that is as polemic as Nigger.

I don't know anything about the book, SPIKS and I was not criticizing it. I said I would not refer to anyone of Latino heritage with the word.

Halle Berry is an actor, using the word in context I'm assuming by your reference. That has nothing to do with blacks who reject the word or my argument that I think it is inappropriate for others to casually use it.

I was not using it casually, The forbidden N word, that is. I have put it into the context of how words loose their meaning, when people evolve and move on. My perception is that the word has changed and it is not the same for everybody today. I brought up the other words, Chicano and N as an example. Maybe they are the wrong example and you are the one who's right. Maybe I just like the word Spik and was trying to bring another perspective. I have nothing else to say.

I have often found myself working backwards when attempting to clarify my identity, first clarifying that I am not Chicano, but I am Latino, and finally explaining that I identify as a Costa Rican or Costa Rican-American. In an article published by the Poetry Foundation in December, 2009, poet Rigoberto González briefly addressed the still too limited recognition of Chicano/Latino poets among the U.S. literary community. I was pleased to see the incorporation of the term Latino neighboring Chicano. While the Chicano community has certainly opened doors for Chicano & Latino writers over the past thirty years in the U.S., I have often sensed an ongoing marginalization of native Spanish speakers in the U.S. which were not Chicano. Understandably, the majority of Spanish speakers in the U.S. are Chicano or Mexican, yet it is important to recognize the diversity among our culture. I found your article to be very insightful and relevant to me. Thanks.

RQuesada, thanks for your input. I found your words just as insightful and relevant to me, too.