''I Am Joaquin'' (also known as Yo soy Joaquin), by
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales and translated by Juanita Dominguez, is a famous epic poem associated with the
Chicano movement
The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento, was a social and political movement in the United States inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent, especially of Pachucos in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Black ...
of the 1960s in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. In ''I am Joaquin'', Joaquin (the narrative voice of the poem) speaks of the struggles that the Chicano people have faced in trying to achieve
economic justice
Justice in economics is a subcategory of welfare economics. It is a "set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions". Economic justice aims to create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive and creativ ...
and
equal rights in the U.S, as well as to find an identity of being part of a hybrid
mestizo
(; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...
society. He promises that his culture will survive if all Chicano people stand proud and demand acceptance.
The Chicano movement inspired much new poetry. ''I Am Joaquin'' is one of the earliest and most widely read works associated with the movement. In its entirety, the poem describes the then modern dilemma of Chicanos in the 1960s trying to assimilate with American culture while trying to keep some semblance of their culture intact for
future generations
Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future ge ...
, then proceeds to outline 2000 years of Mexican and Mexican-American history, highlighting the different, often opposing strains that make up the Chicano heritage. In the poem, for example, the speaker, Joaquin, traces both his ancestry to the Spanish ''conquistadores'' and the Aztecs they "conquered"; he also identifies with revolutionary figures of Mexican history such as
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
Don (honorific), Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo (), was a Catholic priest, leader ...
,
Benito Juárez
Benito Pablo Juárez García (; 21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872) was a Liberalism in Mexico, Mexican liberal politician and lawyer who served as the 26th president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in office in 1872. As a Zapotec peoples, Zapo ...
,
and
Joaquin Murrieta
Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes spelled Murieta or Murietta) (1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican-American figure of disputed historicity. The novel '' The Life and A ...
who was a legendary Californian known for seeking retribution against the Anglo-Americans invaders who killed his wife. The poem creates a "multivalent and heroic identity" in the figure of Joaquin, one that serves as a "collective cultural identity that contains within it a call to action."
In 1969, the poem was adapted into a
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
by director
Luis Valdez
Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and theater, Valdez is best known for his play '' Zoot Suit'', his movie '' La Bamba'', and his cre ...
, a leading figure in Chicano theater.
References
External links
I am Joaquin (''poem'')
Epic poems in Spanish
Chicano
Mexican-American literature
{{poem-stub