just got through Conversations with Ilan Stavans and i definitely recommend it to anyone that is interested on the current and future direction of latino/hispanic art in the united states.
lemme tell ya, if i couldnt be a poet i would definitely want to be an interviewer. i’ve only moderated one actual live Q&A and had a blast doing it. on the sneak, i have been part of a few panels where the questions where going straight to hell and everybody was on the verge of going to sleep. at that point i either ask the audience, the other panelists or even myself some stuff and then try to shape where it goes from there… manda todo in effect!
back to reality, there is one question that Ilan asks Ariel Dorfman that is still messing with my head:
“Henry James once tried to describe the difference between the first, original tongue, and its counterpart, the second, acquired one. He called the first the mother tongue and the second the wife or mistress tongue. It was a logical approach: James happened to be addressing someone who had English as a second tongue, and he said, memorably, that English behaves as a mistress– it will be loyal to you if you take care of her, but it will betray you, be angry and offensive, if you misbehave. Taking that as a starting point, could you describe what Spanish means to you and likewise English? How do they behave toward you and you toward them? Which one would you rather have in an intimate moment? Which is a language of fury and which is the language of dreams?”
what about it y’all, thoughts, ideas, cake?