TROCHEMOCHE means helter-skelter in Spanish, and this book expresses the turmoil of the barrio and the various themes that drive Luis J. Rodriquez's poetry. Drawing on more than ten years of poems, Rodriguez writes powerfully and passionately about urban youth, family, and the plight of neglected communities, while exploring the rich cultural roots of his Chicano ancestry.
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Amazon.com Review
Trochemoche (TROH-chay MOH-chay) means helterskelter in Spanish, and this book is dedicated to the helterskelter of the barrio--both its chaotic good and bad.
Many of the poems are narrative, relying upon the metaphor of the poem's event rather than densely figurative language. In "Freeway Flyin' Burrito Man," the Mexican speaker of the poem is confronted by a biker buddy of his white girlfriend, who tries to scare the speaker with a motorcycle adaptation of the game "Chicken." The speaker gets the girl; the biker hits the road, after some significant glaring.
Rodriguez seems to use narrative with great control. Perhaps too much control. His most passionate words come not from the cool, sharp-eyed stories but from the often surprising images that he creates, images that build and rebuild the life of the barrio. In "Reflection on an El Train Glass," the speaker becomes mesmerized as "a vise of sun grips a shape, / an innuendo of myself" and the past reveals its hazy multiple layers. In the stirring poem "Securo Que Hell Yes!" the poet explains the effects of racism and oppression as a nightmare that has occurred so frequently that "it's a song / beneath our breathing," yet it won't stop the dream of returning to the America that his people helped to build. The imagery provides a bridge for understanding the harsh events of the barrio.
From Publishers Weekly
Active on the Chicago spoken-word scene, Rodr!guez has appeared on a number of CD compilations and a PBS special, is the author of the memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and the founder of T!a Chucha press. His third collection, titled after the Spanish expression for "helter-skelter, pell mell; all over the place," takes street-tough rhythms and a flair for self-dramatization, and imbues them with a lyric sensibility, forging lines best read aloud: "I am capitalism's angry Christ, techno Quetzacoatl, toppling the temples/ of modern thievery, of surplus value in word-art/ Aexploited, anointed, and perhaps double-jointed." More prevalent are loose free-verse narratives of Rodr!guez's post-barrio life as a poet, father and husband. Getting frisked by the cops, running into "The Animal" from a rival section of East L.A. and worries over the next generation's trials and tribulations are all taken in stride, and offset by a section of imagistic vignettes: "Poems Too Short To Braid." Despite the poet's spoken-word tendencies, many of these tender poems easily hold their own on the page: "Whose Jalisco harangues the Jalisco in my stroll?/ who lays across the ruins of Teotihuacan like rainwater;/ whose face outlines the bathroom walls of cantinas;/ who is the aguardiente that tongues my callused throat?"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Café & Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Warrior-Poet,
By Tim Peeler "tpeeler" (Hickory, NC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Trochemoche: Poems by Luis Rodriguez (Paperback)
The poems in this collection are more recent ones by former gang member, street guy, Rodriguez. Some are not as lyrical as they might be, in fact, it is a hit and miss collection. However, what this book really has going for it is a passion for the art and a passion for his variety of subjects. All the mechanical skills in the world cannot replace a love for your art. Rodriguez has this and more. In this volume there is great humor and great sadness, love, bitterness, loneliness and great strength, the strength of a poet-warrior.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
noche de trochemoche,
By Noel Andrade (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Trochemoche: Poems by Luis Rodriguez (Paperback)
after reading his other book La Vida Loca, i was left with a craving for more. Although his poetry is rather different, it still seems to capture the same vividness, and reality of what life on the streets is like. Being a native of chicago it was nice read some of the descriptions of places that i grew up around. I could feel his perception of this gray city we live in. There are few books that can capture what it is to grow up in urban America and make it seem so real and at the sametime beautiful.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
REVIEW QUOTES,
This review is from: Trochemoche: Poems by Luis Rodriguez (Paperback)
"The voices of TROCHEMOCHE are truly unforgettable." --World Literature Today"In fusing childhood experience of working life, love and family with current labors and lusts, ...these peoms make clear their voracity." --Publishers Weekly "Chicano poet Luis J. Rodríguez is a writer to watch...and read." --MultiCultural Review "Each of his tender poems is an unabashed machine of transcendence, a hunk of primary meat to feed the primary poetic hungers." --Richard Silberg, Poetry Flash
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