Sign-In
Cart
The Chronicles of Tio Zuco / The Barbarian Dialects: Weird Tales of Crime and Humor
Paperback
ISBN13: 9780997395013
Publisher: Kelly Pasholk
Published: Aug 20 2017
Pages: 130
Weight: 0.44
Height: 0.31 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Cañon's poet, Richard Trujillo, a Chicano, born and bred, possesses the old-fashioned virtues of loyalty and authenticity in his life and in his art. Despite the demons found in Richard's demi-monde, he survives, which is what his lyrics are all about.
When Richard was a young man, he was volatile, quick-tempered. Now, he says, I just walk away from these fools. I'm too old for that stuff. A lot of my friends are dead from needles. I used to know a lot of bad-ass gangsters. Manners and respect kept me alive. I dropped out of school in the tenth grade. I was in the guard from '57 to '59. I was in prison in '61-'62, for 18 months, for breaking and entering.
The Sheriff, Fasho Trujillo, drove me and a friend down. Stopped in Española and bought us a beer. When we got to the joint, the guards gave Fasho hell for not having us in shackles. He said, 'know these boys. They're friends of mine.' He was good people. After I got paroled, I did not go back, not in 37 years.
The Barbarian Dialects, Richard's first volume of poetry, was much influenced by listening to the blues. He grew up hanging out with older guys, listening to Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, James Brown, among other black artists. Later he listened to Bob Dylan and Tom Waits.
Sudden violence is never far from Richard's verse. For instance in the poem Lonely in the Crowd, the poet writes, Then the ending comes in flashes/Lightning blades that stink of blood/The final thunder of dots and dashes/As they loosen away the flood ...
Though his friends have given him a lot of books, he says I don't know where it (poetry) comes from sometimes. Richard has no formal education but he read the Bible a lot in jail or prison, because as he says, That was the only book there.
One of the poet's most popular ballads is Between Heaven and Hell where Screaming hangover shakers/that will stalk out your brain/Will turn all that cool laughter/Into bright colored pain.
The titles of The Barbarian Dialects reflect the experience of a man who has lived hard, loved, and seen the other side of life: Thieves, Wizards, and Shards of Glass, From a Barred Window, Silver Strings (Epistle to an Enemy of Honor), Requiem for a Vato Loco, (Death Watch: Part Three), Tempest Lament in Blue, Mr. Cool, To Maria, Mirrors, Ode to a Cat (Oda al Gato).
The metaphors in his poetry reflect the concrete imagery of the street as well as the more abstract vocabulary of the passions elevated to metaphysical commentary.
He possesses a kind of raw talent, nurtured by an existentialist's survival ethos. The lyrics are tinged with sarcasm and irony.
Richard and his neighbor, the santero Patrociño Barela, were friends. We were in jail a couple of times at the same time when I was young, says Richard. That guy kept us laughing all night. Man, he was great.
Richard's muse is nurtured by laughter, passion, and violence, producing an uncommon commentary on what it means to live the life of a Vato Loco. The language, like the life, is rich and expressive. The poetry dances to the beat of an unusually original singer.
-- Bill Whaley
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover