Thanksgiving Poem by Latino?

November 24, 2010 8:16 AM

Specific Thanksgiving poem by a Latino author? I am trying to find a remembered poem for a professor about Thanksgiving that he remembers reading. Poem is in English, by a Latino poet, very funny, and about a young person explaining to his/her parents what Thanksgiving is/means. The prof thinks the poem was by a male author. (minor additional details below the fold)

After extensive searching, we have eliminated the following choices:

"Thanksgiving of No Mas" by Jose B. Gonzalez
"Thanksgiving" by Martin Espada

Professor says it was funnier than those two and that he remembers an exchange about the parents being surprised about cooking turkey and something about not understanding the word Thanksgiving as a holiday.

Any ideas? Anyone read something like this before? Please help a stumped librarian with addition idea if nothing else.

posted by eleanna to writing & language (8 answers total)

Espada was my guess. What about Richard Blanco's "America"?
posted by liketitanic at 8:49 AM on November 24, 2010

Excerpt:

In 1976
I explained to Abuelita
about the Indians and the Pilgrims,
how Lincoln set the slaves free.
I explained to my parents about
the purple mountain's majesty,
the amber waves of grain,
"one if by land, two if by sea,"
the cherry tree, the tea party,
the "masses yearning to be free,"
liberty and justice for all...
And finally they agreed—
this Thanksgiving we would have turkey,
as well as pork.

Abuelita prepared the poor fowl
as if committing an act of treason,
harnessing as much enthusiasm
as possible, for my sake.
Mamá prepared candied yams,
following instructions printed
on the back of a marshmallow bag,
and set a frozen pumpkin pie in the oven.
Dad watched WLTV: "Lo Nuestro."
posted by liketitanic at 8:50 AM on November 24, 2010

Passed on to the faculty member. Thank you! This looks like the best best so far. I'll let you know.
posted by eleanna at 10:42 AM on November 24, 2010

and...this is, in fact, the right poem. You are my hero. Thank you!
posted by eleanna at 10:52 AM on November 24, 2010

That looks great! Hey, @liketitanic, can you provide a link to the whole thing?
posted by AngerBoy at 4:49 PM on November 24, 2010

AngerBoy, you can find it on page 230 of Seriously Funny in Google Books.
posted by Houstonian at 7:02 PM on November 24, 2010

I was wrong. Only part of the poem is available at the link I gave above. See Little Havana Blues in Google Books, page 28-32.
posted by Houstonian at 7:11 PM on November 24, 2010

Huzzah! That's awesome. Thank you so much.
posted by AngerBoy at 9:16 PM on November 24, 2010