Soy Joaquin

I Am Joaquin is a free verse and extremely lyrical poem written in the late 1960’s by a man named Rodolfo Gonzales, who is regarded as a founder of the Chicano movement. The poem itself is a reflection of his identity as a Mexican-American, and a long one at that. Having a tone that changes around in a poem can be tricky to pull off but was done well a couple of times throughout the poem.

The speaker starts off by declaring himself and his cultural context by stating his name in the language he is most proud of, Spanish, and follows it with describing how his culture has been “suppressed, destroyed and scorned” by the Anglo society in which he was born into. Confusion comes up three times in the first five lines to outline this point further that there is a discrepancy between what his culture truly is and what modern society wants for him. Before switching gears to describe historical events in his culture and their effect, he states that he withdraws from this society to be with “[HIS] OWN PEOPLE”. The capital lettering both emphasizes the deep emotions caused by racism and a bloody history as well as the story of his people to come starting in the next line.

The longest part of this poem deals with the speaker telling the story of the bloody Mexican history starting in the early 16^th century up to the Mexican-American participation in the Vietnam War (which was the present when the poem was written). He begins many of these statements with “I am” or some version of “I have”, telling these stories from the first person, as to make them more emotive and passionate. Declaring his identity by saying that he is a Mayan prince, Cortes the despot, the Aztec Eagle, has ridden with Pancho Villa and has been a bloody revolution brings together imagery that embodies the speaker. Most of these lines become very short a couple of pages into the poem bringing a conciseness to the identity of the speaker. The diction throughout this section is graphically filled with images of revolutions, death, war, destruction, disease, blood, courage, faith, and the land. There are many references of important heroes and battles that really bring a depth and richness to the culture he is trying to bring through the page.

With the line “Here I stand”, the tone of the speaker shifts from an angst-filled telling of bloody history to a slightly hopeless view of his culture’s stance in the world as if he’s exhausted from all of the bloodshed in the past. Nevertheless, he still stays proud of his culture after telling all about its history in a lyrical fashion and moves onto more present issues for the Chicano culture. Describing himself as dirty, poor in money, rich in faith and a victim of the destruction of music and art in his culture, the speaker shows us where he stand in the modern world. Many of the lines start to become enjambed which makes it feel as if the speaker is out of breathe, further illustrating the tiredness he feels from earlier examinations of cultural history. The new challenges for Chicano culture are revealed when he says that “I am Joaquin/I must fight and win this struggle for my sons, and they must know from me who I am”. The new struggle is surviving in the Anglo society. The hopeless and tired tone is irradiated when he declares “I am still here!” and that he has survived bigotry, dejection and exploitation.

The speaker starts to close the poem with images of further revolution with tequila, trumpets and clamoring voices ready to keep the culture alive and well. He ends the piece with a triumphant “I SHALL ENDURE! I WILL ENDURE!”

This piece is a statement of cultural identity that uses the speaker’s cultural history to embody and the identity of the speaker. He identifies so much with his culture that he actually becomes the culture itself in the poem, a powerful technique. It is significant to the Chicano identity given that the author was one of the founders of the Chicano movement.

(696 words)