Welcome to Texas Talk I'm Gilbert Garcia, opinion writer and columnist for the San Antonio Express-News.

On this show, we bring you one on one conversations with some of the most fascinating figures in Texas politics, sports, culture and business.

Even when another fighter is ruled the heavyweight division in the early 1970s, Muhammad Ali was, by his own estimation and that of his fans, the people's champion.

By the same token, even before Eddie Vega recently received the honor of being named San Antonio's poet laureate, he was unquestionably the people's poet.

His witty and incisive examinations of food, family and the cultural complexities that come with growing up Mexican-American have appeared on city busses in downtown San Antonio.

Buildings been performed at poetry slams and open mic nights, and been printed in two collections by a small South Texas publishing house.

On this episode, Vega talks about his upbringing, his interest in theology, and what inspires him to write.

Let's get started.

Eddie, thank you so much for being on the show.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Well, as we record this, it's been less than 24 hours since you had your investiture.

you're now officially the poet laureate of San Antonio for the next three years.

Do you feel any different?

Oh, yeah.

There was a big metal around my neck for, most of the evening.

Yeah.

and I. I probably should have brought it just to be showing it off, and not a lot of chances to.

I'm gonna get to wear it.

so.

Yeah, I probably should've.

I know that you don't write for awards or that that kind of recognition, but what does this mean to you?

It does.

It does.

It is there.

I've always gotten the feeling that that you're not only a poet, but you also took seriously the idea of being kind of an ambassador for poetry and and encouraging younger people to, to do it.

does this, does this have meaning for you along those lines?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

I think it gives me, a bigger platform to be doing that kind of work, to be showing, kids that poetry doesn't have to be some, old dead white guy.

That's that's writing it.

It's could be somebody that sounds like them, that talks like them.

That looks like them.

I think that's an important thing to to show, kids that are in school that poetry doesn't have to be all about, a rhyme scheme or a rhythm structure and something that we had that we can actually, like, have living, breathing words.

I think that's a really important, you know, thing to do for them.

I was curious how your family responded.

and the reason I ask that is because you have, a great poem in your latest collection.

So, Most New Fathers, in which you, write about the meaning that the film La Bamba has, for your family and how, members of your family will use lines from the film in response to events in their life.

And one example is like, if something really good happens for you, your sister, like Bob in the film, will say that it's my birth.

Yeah.

Right.

Okay.

So I was wondering if you got any of the.

That dude's my bro.

She actually, like, posted that on Facebook.

I think, like, earlier this last week, she was like, that is my brother.

yeah.

There's a, there's that that certainly comes up.

I wrote as well.

We saw that movie at the theater together as a family.

So it was kind of a formative.

Yeah, for a lot of us, I think, that your dad, is an immigrant from Mexico.

Your mother was from the United States.

You grew up near the Mexican US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas?

Yes.

And you write about your your your dad being a teacher in Mexico.

And he worked as a toll operator on the US-Mexico border.

And in one of your poems at which career choices, and you talk about being in school, and if you're in a class where in which career opportunities were we talked about and but you write in, in that poem.

My father stopped being a teacher so I could be one.

Yes.

and that that really struck a chord with me.

And there's also another poem that you have, monarchs, where you, you use, metaphor really beautifully.

And you say Mexicans are monarchs.

Mexicans, like, monarchs migrate to the north.

The parents sacrifice for their children.

and so I wondered, with all that in mind, that that example, I mean, you're you're a parent.

I mean, how how you apply that in your own life with with with kids of your own.

Sure.

Yeah.

You know, and in that poem, I talk about a lot of the monarchs.

don't all make the journey.

The whole way themselves.

They they they they move on.

And so I think that we push our children forward and forward on the journey and, you know, it might not be that I'm.

I'm not the one making the whole journey.

I'm hoping that my kids can continue it.

You know, I, in a poem, I talk about my grandfather.

He came from, further south in Mexico, up to toward the border to Tamaulipas.

And my father, he crossed over, and and I'm hoping, you know, and I traveled with my father, and I'm hoping that my kids can spread their wings and fly and be further out than me.

and I think that's that's all part of it.

That's that's the immigrant, dream, the immigrant narrative, whatever we want to call it, that.

You have a poem in your latest collection about your grandfather.

I just wonder if you wouldn't mind reading.

Sure.

this was about my grandfather, but also a little bit about my language and.

And culture.

it's called You sabe.

You sabe Englis I would stop as he passed me on his way into the house or out of the house or toward his office, lying in print, he typed with just in as index fingers.

Me, a boy sitting in the patio, reading or playing with cars, or sitting in the rocking chair watching my guitars crawl along the wall.

He the stateless man.

And it's.

You got me into my slippers.

He stopped to greet his son with a question that needed no answer, but received one anyway.

You sorry you sabi English Si abueltito ,I sabe English.

He smiled.

Or laugh or both or hop or whisper Yo se and turn around Děčín que He worked on Falcon.

Děčín que and he was a timekeeper.

No Děčíen lo quieren decir timekeeper.

I imagine my grandfather standing in an office overlooking the working the work on the damn near window, holding a pocket watch, and just the precise moment we say out loud, 5:00 and all was well, 5:00 and all is well.

Only my abuelito if I didn't know English, even though gringos would stop and ask him.

You sabe, you sabe English and he would probably smile or laugh or both, or say un poquito, or be silent so as not to make the gringo nervous.

As nervous as a little boy who didn't know how to react to such questions.

Si abuelito yo se English.

That's great.

Thank you so much for being here.

It seems to me that a lot of your poetry deals with that unique cultural space that Mexican-Americans occupy, and I think you referred to it as, in your latest collection is, you say to be Mexican-American is to be in the middle, to be of a border mindset, not fully belonging on either side.

You write about being caught between two worlds.

not feeling like you can explain one side to another.

How did that play out for you personally in McAllen, growing up, trying to kind of navigate between these two worlds?

Yeah.

so I was, you know, in an early age, I was in GT classes, Gibson Town, two classes later in honors classes, and a lot of my classmates were from the north side of McAllen, which was the more affluent and maybe and less Mexican side of McAllen.

and I was I grew up a little bit further south.

And, there was differences in income.

There was differences in what our houses looked like.

I don't think I ever saw them in the free or reduced lunch line, where I was and then, you know, on weekends, or when I went home, it was Mexican music that we were listening to.

there's Mexican radio stations.

it was occasionally.

Occasionally, TV that was the Spanish.

but at school that was a little bit different, like, like music or.

Right.

Kids are listened to to, to the Smiths, you know, and not when I, so there was a, there was that there was a talking, all in English, you know, with them and mastering that, but at home and or having to go on the weekend to my grandparents house in Mexico was mastering Spanish and trying not to let go of that all.

But it was also a struggle like, maybe I don't want them to see what this is like.

You know, I was maybe a little embarrassed when the door would open, when my dad would drop me off at school and have that, that on our plane.

because that wasn't cool.

You know, I didn't want to be associated with that, necessarily.

but that's what it was growing up.

I think now, much, much later, I'm appreciating all that, a whole lot more.

I really, you know, something about an accordion that moves me.

whereas before I was, I was and so moved to to maybe close the door a little faster.

Yeah.

You, attended Saint Mary's University and you studied theology, and you've taught theology, at the high school level.

I'm curious, what got you interested in, in that subject?

Yeah.

It's funny.

I think what started me in theology was, a class that I had a Doctor Terry.

Telepath.

It was, that intro class at Saint Mary's.

You have to take.

I think it's two theology classes.

Or back then, two theology class, three philosophies.

And my intro theology was, was, was really interesting.

And it reminded me a lot of what I had just seen a few years previously, which was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and that that whole idea of ancient texts or classical texts.

And we didn't have an archeology program at Saint Mary's.

but we did have a theology program, and I switched majors from political science, because it just was interesting.

Also, I was exploring my faith and searching for the Lost Ark, searching last year, searching for a lost ark, and.

Yeah.

And searching for within myself what I was believing about myself and kind of at the same time.

Yeah.

so I, I was like, oh, I'm going to learn Latin, I'm learning Greek.

I'm going to be like, like, like Indiana Jones.

and that never really happened.

so but I did like a lot of the, the history classes that are the theological history or church history classes.

I really enjoyed those.

Just does it does it come into play at all in your work?

I mean, just just your knowledge of that subject?

Well, I mean, what ended up happening and after all those theology classes that I got into, social justice, you know, and I ended up as a, as a missionary doing rural development, in southern Mexico for a year.

And really, that's what kind of comes into my, my, my focus sometimes in poetry is, the social justice of what we can do for people to better an entire society, to be more communitarian.

although, you know, to to speak out for people that are marginalized.

What, what people refer to as liberation theology is that is that.

No, that has a play in it.

You know, we used to study liberation.

We studied about liberation theology.

When I was at Saint Mary's.

We were it would come up as a topic.

I lived in Mexico and I got to study a little bit in Mexico, and it was taught from the perspective of liberation theology, which was totally different, because now it's like, oh, we're not going to debate it.

This is it.

This is what we're doing.

Yeah.

You said that you didn't really get serious about poetry till, about 15 years ago, which is that you were in your early 30s, I guess, at that point.

And you've credited your friend and mentor.

Jesse Cardona, for kind of helping, get you really kind of spark that that interest in even the banjo poet.

Yeah.

how did you how did he inspire you?

Sure.

well, I had already written a lot of things, and I didn't really know much about the poetry community in San Antonio.

and it so happened that I went to go work in a cardboard high school.

And sitting across from me at a picnic table on one of the first days of school, was Jesse Cardona, who I had.

No.

Then was, one of the great poets of San Antonio is one of the great poets Antonio wrote pan dule He wrote one about Avocado Avenue, wrote a lot of things, did a lot of things.

And he was there and he said, are you a poet?

And it was for the first time when I was like, oh.

And I said, yes.

I don't know what came with something came over me.

And I said, yes.

And he said, and then like about a week or two later, he's like, we're going to go to Imagine Books and Records.

You're going to come with me and we're going to go read a yes, sir, you know.

So then that kind of kicked the whole thing, and then we'd have like music performances there.

They would also have like, I guess, write readings.

We would sometimes able to have an event called the Least Mustache and it would be a poet, reader, poet, sorry, poet, musician, poet, musician back before now.

You got to host it a couple of times.

it was great.

Great event.

And you became known as the Taco poet.

I mean, did he give you that name or to.

No, no, I think that started with myself.

I have ridden right in a lot of poems about tacos, or about eating tacos or being around people with tacos.

Yeah.

So, I think I said I was a taco poet of San Antonio.

I declared it, and, later on some, I think I, I decided to expand it because I'm from the Valley.

I'm like other taco poor in South Texas.

Yeah.

And then we were so.

No.

Right.

Well, we're out of reading and, vocab, actually, Jay Sanderson said, she's introducing me.

You said you're not.

It says here on the bow, your taco poet.

It's not.

No.

You're the taco poet of Texas.

Now, when she said that, and that was a declaration that was a little bit more official, I think.

And, I kept that ever since.

I don't think anybody's challenged that.

Your title, I that's I think you're I think you're good at that.

You know, I was, I was talking with you before we started about how, you know, I writing, you know, for the for the page is one thing.

Performing is a different thing.

And you're, you're really exceptional at both.

And I wondered how, because I mean, that there probably many people over the years who maybe had a gift for, for poetry, but maybe it wouldn't have been that comfortable performing in front of an audience.

And you've you've done, you know, poetry slams and open mic, events.

And, was that confidence always there?

Was it something that the performing skill, was it something you had to develop over time?

I think there was a lot of element to it.

I mean, I since I was a kid, I was the one that was asked to be the narrator in the play.

I was, I was in speech and debate in high school, so I had public speaking background.

I don't know that I was when I first started, I think I was I wasn't very relaxed, but I had some coaching, you know, I did Puro slam, and I was on a team that went to National, so there was a lot of coaching there, on performance, writing wise, it's always been the writing, too, and I found it.

I was I had a conversation just the other day about this, about writing for Slam, and, I think I tried to write for Slam a lot, and that didn't work out.

That wouldn't score well, but what I, I was writing authentically about myself that that would be much more natural and that actually did better.

when I was in Slam, when I was, you know, but yeah, there's a it's complimentary, I think.

And there's also a long tradition in Mexican culture of and Latin American culture, of declamation, of poetry.

That is out loud.

You I don't know if you maybe heard it on the radio.

Sometimes you would hear, at certain points you'd have this, this, this deep voice talking, you know, reading a poem, over the radio, but with, you know, there's very, very, a very powerful voice and stuff, and I think so I heard that, certainly growing up.

And I think there's there's a little bit of that in what I'm trying to do.

but yeah, it's, it's a, it's a way in which to convey a message, to, to a larger audience when you're, when you're writing, are you hearing it, in performance.

Can you, can you are you are you is that is that rhythm something that you're that you're aware of?

You're thinking of it as, as something that's going to be performed or is I think, yes, I think to be a, I think a good poem and I don't mean just performed, but I think it has to be read out loud, you know, so I'm writing or I'm typing and I take a step back and I look at it, and then I read it out loud to see if it sounds right, see if I need to change something to, I'm not going to say that I, that I'm looking for a certain rhythm or anything like that.

I'm just wanting it to.

So to flow.

Messages flow.

Well, and that's when I'll change a comma or I'll change a word or something to to make it flow well so that it's easier, just to speak.

Do you.

I was curious about whether you've, you've ever, worked in the, in the prose form at all.

And the reason I ask is because, you know, some poems of yours and career choices is one that stands out to me, where you're talking about being in school and, and, taking a field trip to McDonald's and the idea of jobs coming up, as a kid.

And I look at that and I think, well, that's good.

That could easily be a short story in a way.

It is a short story.

It's just done in poetic form.

But do you ever do you ever.

You know, I think when I first started, I've always wanted to be a writer.

All right.

And, I thought writing novels first, writing short stories, I was like, in the 90s.

I was a lot more short story writing.

but I think I don't have the attention span to come to, to to do something like that.

And when I discovered that I could keep doing poetry in two and three minute bits, you know, and I heard a lot of songwriters say the same thing, but it's the tightness of the form is what's appealing to them.

Right?

Right.

And people say that here in San Antonio, we're storytellers, that our poets are storytellers.

And that's kind of sets us apart, makes it special.

Once you've written something, do you carry it in your head?

Is it's stay there.

I mean, because it seems as though you you don't both back and forth and like, you know, if I hear a good line, right.

Or I think of a good line, I had to write it down to stay in my head for a while, kind of percolating.

And then it goes to the page.

Well, then the same thing happens if I'm reading something a lot or somebody, someone they're asking for a poem at the open mic that I've done a lot or something has seemed to hit well.

I read it over and over again, and then it does kind of stay in my head, and that's part of it.

And that helps to memorization.

You know, when I'm at a big festival or a major event, it's better that your poem is memorized because the audience wants to see that.

They don't really want to see you looking at a phone on a page.

so I have to try to memorize it.

I do rely on paper a lot, though.

One one things I love about your work is the sense of wordplay and the fun that you have with words, and that use one point where you referred to your sister, calling.

And by now this and nothing is, you, there's one case where you look at the double meaning of change.

You talk about positive change, and and then you also talk about having a loose change in your pocket.

you, you write about, responding to gentrification, by, with the idea that Mexicans can make Mexican-Americans practice and gentefecation on the north s of San Antonio.

where did you kind of develop this?

That was it just sort of an appreciation, just playing with words.

This is this is my dad really all those dad jokes that you.

Yeah.

You know, I heard you referred to these as dad jokes.

That's it.

Yeah, but, dad puns.

Yeah.

my dad, just growing up, was always playing with words, trying to make something funny in English and Spanish.

Sometimes in both languages, trying to.

You know, what is funny about, you know, you might say, if you did really well in Spanish, you say te vantaste right.

Well, my dad would say, you threw yourself right, which is literally what it means, but it's a yeah.

So there was always that and I picked up and I would roll my eyes at a lot of that, you know, because it's kind of just really corny, but it stuck.

And I guess I don't know if I'm taking it to a new level or I think you are, are just exactly, one of my favorite poems of yours in this latest collection.

so stereotypical.

And this is a poem about which you kind of lay out all the very stereotypes that people have about exist about Mexican-Americans.

And then you kind of turn them all in your head and you'll have a line that says, my parents, typical Mexicans.

And then you'll see, you'll say something, and then it'll be completely the opposite of what people think.

And one example is you say, my parents, typical Mexicans, brought drugs and rock drugs into the country, but in this case, it's like pills, for your mom's high blood pressure and, and probiotics for your infections and stuff like that.

There are a lot of different ways about in which to address stereotypes.

How did you arrive at this?

Because it was very effective to kind of make people think, oh, we're so stereotypical.

But then it's it's completely the opposite, right?

I guess sometimes you just have to lean into the stereotype because like what?

Why is it why is the stereotype there.

Yeah.

because there maybe there's some sort of truth to it.

but let's see what the real truth is.

Not what the truth that you think it is.

Yeah.

So like the, you know, I think another one in there is that, my mom got pregnant because she was married.

Because she was.

She was married because she was pregnant.

Yeah, well, because my parents had to get married three times.

once by the church in Mexico, once by the the civil authority in Mexico, and then once on this side of the border.

So they had been married in Mexico, right.

And marry here.

Yeah, exactly.

So kind of turning that, on the, the, the drug one you mentioned, I think it starts out with this whole idea, this old joke, that I heard when I was a kid about Mexicans have tamales at Christmas, although I have some tune around.

Yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

which was cruel.

And I was like, you know what?

Let's let's try let's maybe unwrap more about this, you know, about this idea, you know, maybe we are the gifts, right?

there's more to it than that.

I was curious because you've been an educator and and because you love literature.

There's been so much talk, and particularly in Texas, about books in schools, library books in school libraries and efforts both, you know, in the the legislative level and school board level to remove books that maybe some parents find objectionable or that have some elements that they think are not appropriate for kids.

And I was wondering just how you view that issue.

I'm sure you, you know, as you've seen this play out, and with your love for books, I was just curious what is just, I guess, from from the perspective of my love for books, it's just a hurtful thing to say that you can't read this, or we don't want you to read this, and we're not gonna really tell you why.

Just just just take it.

Yank it from you.

Or not even give you access to it.

And I just think that's wrong.

And especially because of the the populations that are targeted, which is really, really unfair, people who might discover more about who they are, as individuals are not given the opportunity to be reading some of these things.

you know, I know that we, we, we we say, our parents are the primary educators, and this is true, but there's so much more that we learn out there, from the books where their parents maybe plant the seed, but we're going to, like, grow from reading whatever's in the, in the book.

and I think that's just a detriment.

And the other thing associated with that isn't just that we are taking books out of libraries, but there are some places, and even in this town where we're getting rid of the libraries, and I think that's that's even worse.

You know, the issue is often framed by the people who defended the removal of these books as parental choice, although, I mean, an issue with that is that sometimes it can be one parent objecting.

And whereas maybe a majority of parents might actually have no problems with it.

Right.

But I mean, how do you how do you think schools should navigate those kind of issues?

Oh gosh.

That's that's a tough one.

Because, you know, parents are you know, as a parent I would like to be involved.

But I, I guess maybe I'm a much more liberal minded parent about like what my kids are reading.

I'm like, I want to bring them all the books and, and show them all the books so they have the choice of what they're going to be reading, and not limit exactly what's going on.

And also it's going to build a healthy conversation with my own kids.

I've seen them read something or, or watch something on YouTube and, and be like, you know what?

I don't like that.

But let's talk about why we don't like that.

You know, that's that's that's, you know what?

I'm going to give you something else to watch.

You're not trying to keep them from ideas that you might disagree.

No, no, let's let's let's give them more ideas so that they can, you know, come into their own, come into their own their own belief system, into the idea system.

What's your writing process like?

I mean, you have you you work as a school administrator.

You, you know, you're a very busy person.

How do you find time to write?

And is it something that you do every morning, or do you work at night?

What's what kind of process do I wish that I had was organized enough to have this routine?

I think it's a goal of mine to do.

I've seen frog, is one of my mentors, and I saw a post of hers where she had her schedule and it included, like, hours.

And when she was in write.

And I'm like, well, that's what she does.

That's how she does.

That's how she's written all these books, you know?

Yeah.

mornings are good for me.

Saturday, Sunday mornings, before people are the others are week at my computer.

Those are good.

a lot of times I think, like I mentioned before, if I think of a good line, I read write it down in my notes app.

so my notes app is full of just lines.

Scattered lines.

Yeah.

It's.

And sometimes I forget why they're there.

like, what would the context was of this?

But it just like so eventually I when I'm the time of writing, I'm looking at my notes and, and picking something out and said, oh yeah, that's what that was.

Good.

And let me add to this and let me construct a poem around this.

It's not always I can't say that I, just sit down and write a poem out, you know, a 2 or 3 minute poem.

It's it's constructed the song where John, John Fogerty with Quincy Clearwater Revival, he would write titles, he just get titles.

And he'd he had a notebook filled with titles.

And then he was like, later, say, I think I'll try to write a song.

Yes.

So, yeah, I have a book.

I mean, I'm a, something that I'm working on, where I have just, I've written, I think, 30 titles for poems so that it's going to fit into a narrative.

You know, we talked about how, I don't write stories or whatever.

Actually, I am trying to write something where it's a story, but it's going to be poems that build the story.

Eddie, thank you so much for being on share It.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

That's all for this episode of Texas Talk Thanks for watching.

We'd love to hear from you.

If you have any questions or thoughts about the show, please email us at Texas Talk @KLRN.org.

We'll be back next month with a new guest.

Until then, take care.