Activity 1.14 continued What Is Cultural Criticism?
My Notes Poetry
About the Author
An award-winning poet, journalist, and critic, Luis J. Rodriguez was born on the U.S./Mexico border, but grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. As a youth, he joined a gang to gain a sense of belonging and protection, but he found salvation in the Chicano movement and in literature. In prose works like Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., and poetry collections like The Concrete River, Rodriguez deals with the struggle to survive in a chaotic urban setting.
There were no markets in Watts. There were these small corner stores we called marketas who charged more money 5 for cheaper goods than what existed in other parts of town.
The owners were often thieves in white coats
who talked to you like animals, who knew you had no options; 10 who knew Watts was the preferred landfill of the city.
46 SpringBoard® English Textual Power™ Senior English
Activity 1.14 continued
One time, Mama started an argument My Notes
at the cash register. In her broken English, speaking with her hands, 15 she had us children stand around her as she fought with the grocer on prices & quality & dignity.
Mama became a woman swept
by a sobering madness; 20 she must have been what Moses saw in the burning bush, a pillar of fire consuming the still air that reeked of overripe fruit 25 and bad meat from the frozen food section.