El escudo de Chile
Luis Correa-Díaz
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El Escudo de Chile [Chilean Coat of Arms] (México: Editorial Oxeda, 2023. 140 pages), the latest collection by the prolific Chilean-American poet and critic Luis Correa-Díaz continuously delights in its inventiveness while never letting the reader get too comfortable with the tone, style, or framework of references throughout the volume. Written in and from U.S., the book is composed of a sequence of poems that revolve around the titular coat of arms of Chile. Self-aware throughout, the poems frequently make reference to other major volumes of poetry that have engaged directly with the symbols of the nation, such as Elvira Hernández’s La Bandera de Chile (1991) and Gabriela Mistral’s posthumous Poema de Chile (1967). In fact, the opening verses of the volume pay homage to Hernández’s book: “La Bandera de Chile envuelve al/ Escudo de Chile” [The Chilean Flag wraps around/ The Coat of Arms of Chile] (19). Other texts that wrap around the coat of arms come from the realms of mass media and social media. The personified coat of arms hears the music of Chilean/U.S. urban artist Paloma Mami and feels both love and indignation at once: “cuando el Escudo de Chile escuchó/ por primera vez a Paloma Mami/ casi se vuelve loco en dos direcciones/ de amor obvio […] y de indignación oh/ porque se sintió estafado en su fuero/ literario” [when the Coat of Arms heard/ Paloma Mami for the first time/ it almost went crazy in two directions/ from love obviously […] and oh from indignation/ because it felt ripped off in its literary/ jurisdiction] (28). An expert in digital poetics, the cover of Correa-Diaz’s book is a QR code that links to his biography page on the OXEDA website, and there is also QR code in the book itself that links to a YouTube video related to the poem where it is printed. Alongside received literary norms, we find memes, emojis and video clips, all of which are used to great effect. |
The tone likewise shifts from instances of moving lyricism to unapologetically slang-filled lines such as, for example in section 65, the poet takes on the “sana sana” rhyme: “sana sana potito’e rana/ si no te curai hoy te curarí mañana” [heal, heal little frog butt/ if you don’t heal today you will heal tomorrow] (116). What makes this verse so effective is that it is a deeply domestic utterance placed in the very public context of human rights and memory, “con la celebración/ deste año de los DD HH” [with the celebration/ of this year of Human Rights]. Later in section 65, the poem seamlessly integrates the grandiloquent phrasing reserved for civic spaces involving the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights with a reference to the phrase “no estar ni ahí” made famous as an expression of indifference by the Chilean tennis champion Marcelo “Chino” Ríos in the 1990s. This one of many examples of how the text is capacious and revels in its ability to include seeming contradictions and disparities.
The varied intertextual nods and associative leaps between numerous varieties of textual expression are leveraged not only for humor but also provide insights into the goings-on of the nation in this moment in time: el estallido social, the failed attempt at approving a new constitution and the new presidential administration of Gabriel Boric, for example, make their appearances. The coat of arms, in its singular status as national symbol, becomes multiple, unstable, polyvalent, and susceptible to as many interpretations as the realities it is intended to encapsulate. The text both witnesses and enacts the struggle of that coat of arms to contain meaning and order in moments of profound democratic crisis. It is easy to recommend Correa-Díaz’s book, filled as it is with energy and vitality, to anyone interested in experimental poetics, or anyone remotely interested in Chilean history, poetry and culture. In El Escudo de Chile [Chilean Coat of Arms], the South American country is seeing from inside and outside at once, thus revealing the double migratory condition of the poet and his poetics, which had also been the subject of his Americana-lcd (2021).
Luis Correa-Diaz, poet and professor of Digital Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Georgia-USA. Author of several books, articles and special dossiers. Among them: Latin American Digital Poetics (2023). Poetry books: New Hope Rd (2023); El Escudo de Chile (2023-2022), Valparaíso, puerto principal (2022), Ingeniería solar (2022), Crónicas-in memoriam-s & ofrendas (2022), Americana-lcd (2021), metaverse (2021), Haikus nada más (2021), Los Haikus de Gus (2021 and 2020), Maestranza de San Eugenio… (2020), Diario de un poeta recién divorciado (2020 and 2005), … del amor hermoso (2019), impresos en 3D (2018), clickable poem@s (2016), Cosmological Me (2017 and 2010), Mester de soltería (2008 and 2006), Bajo la pequeña música de su pie (2022 and 1990).
El Escudo de Chile is a publication by Editorial OXEDA-México. Click here to purchase.
The varied intertextual nods and associative leaps between numerous varieties of textual expression are leveraged not only for humor but also provide insights into the goings-on of the nation in this moment in time: el estallido social, the failed attempt at approving a new constitution and the new presidential administration of Gabriel Boric, for example, make their appearances. The coat of arms, in its singular status as national symbol, becomes multiple, unstable, polyvalent, and susceptible to as many interpretations as the realities it is intended to encapsulate. The text both witnesses and enacts the struggle of that coat of arms to contain meaning and order in moments of profound democratic crisis. It is easy to recommend Correa-Díaz’s book, filled as it is with energy and vitality, to anyone interested in experimental poetics, or anyone remotely interested in Chilean history, poetry and culture. In El Escudo de Chile [Chilean Coat of Arms], the South American country is seeing from inside and outside at once, thus revealing the double migratory condition of the poet and his poetics, which had also been the subject of his Americana-lcd (2021).
Luis Correa-Diaz, poet and professor of Digital Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Georgia-USA. Author of several books, articles and special dossiers. Among them: Latin American Digital Poetics (2023). Poetry books: New Hope Rd (2023); El Escudo de Chile (2023-2022), Valparaíso, puerto principal (2022), Ingeniería solar (2022), Crónicas-in memoriam-s & ofrendas (2022), Americana-lcd (2021), metaverse (2021), Haikus nada más (2021), Los Haikus de Gus (2021 and 2020), Maestranza de San Eugenio… (2020), Diario de un poeta recién divorciado (2020 and 2005), … del amor hermoso (2019), impresos en 3D (2018), clickable poem@s (2016), Cosmological Me (2017 and 2010), Mester de soltería (2008 and 2006), Bajo la pequeña música de su pie (2022 and 1990).
El Escudo de Chile is a publication by Editorial OXEDA-México. Click here to purchase.
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