HACHA

Violet Vasquez

March 19th, 2019

ENG 152- Dr. Abinader

In reading HACHA, I wasn’t sure what to expect, the preface really set the tone for me. Colonialism is no joke, and not an act from the past but a monster that is alive and well to the present day. The fragmented poem: from Stations of Crossing has an eerie reminder of Catholicism and it’s part in conquest. The constant mention of nature, was not one of beauty, but of loss, it was sad, and I began to reflect on what loss really means, more so, extinction.  When a people do not have self determination or sovereignty, they are virtually non existence and on the verge of extinction, culturally. I have had some education on Guam and the Chamorro people, a colony of the US, what more proof of imperialism do we need?

Freedom is only given to a certain few, and even then it is broken into policies with regulations, so what is true freedom? So many spaces across the pages only gave light to this unfinished history. A mystery really as in some cases this island is not even charted on some maps, or even given the same name. I found myself thinking of their relation to the rest of the conquered civilizations by the Spanish, the Japanese, and today’s globalized capitalism, by the USA. This book of poems acts as a testimony, to the rest of the world of this islands’ enslavement. It is currently a military base, where the people have no right to clean water, their land, but can actively serve in our military, without promise of citizenship. Yet McKain can be born in Panama and still run for president, head of the military, without ever serving. I was very shaken by this poetry, as it centered so much of my studies in the present day, specifically ethnic studies and political science.

These poems spoke to my education and social location as an American citizen, in a way that made my uncomfortable for reaping the benefits they too should have access to. This book felt like a history broken into pieces, and put together in a different order to tell another side of the truth, using the same broken pieces. Instead of winning of an island, it read like loss of liberty, not just for people but for the land and animals who shared the space with these people.