Poems by Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo

“Machismo Is Part of Our Culture”
by Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo

For Jesse

Hey Chicano bossman
don’t tell me that
machismo is part of our culture
if you sleep
and marry W.A.S.P.
You constantly remind me,
me, your Chicana employee
that machi-machi-machismo
is part of our culture.
I’m conditioned, you say,
to bearing machismo
which you only learned
day before yesterday
At home you’re no patron.
your liberated gabacha
has gotcha where
she wants ya,
y a mi me ves cara
de steppin’ stone
Your culture emanates
from Raza posters on your walls
from bulletin boards in the halls
and from the batos who hang out at the barrio bar.
Chicanismo through osmosis
acquired in good doses
remind you
to remind me
that machi-machi-machismo
is part of our culture.

“No More Cookies, Please”
by Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo

WASP liberationist
you invited me
token minority
but your abortion idealogy
failed to integrate me.
Over cookies and tea
you sidled up to me
and said,
“Sisterhood is powerful”
I said
“Bullshit and allmotherful.”
The right to choose, you say,
Then, can you choose,
Can you guarantee,
the Chicana in Aztlan will see
all her children
survive malnutrition
to arrive into adulthood?
Genocide culture
of uterine cords
and Rockefeller propaganda–
“It is cheaper to kill a guerrilla in the womb
than in the mountains.”
Yet what of our bachelors
and spinsters, never married
never bore children
zero population, i.e. none
yet they stagnate in poverty
in the barrios of Aztlan
I didn’t hear you say
“more brown babies now”
so the minority
can become the majority.

“No more cookies, please.”
We bequeath our brown babies
heirlooms of future generations
to remind you
that an “ism” by an other name
is still racism.

“No more cookies, please,”
You differentiate between the two,
but can you really separate
your sex from your color
No? Then see, it won’t do.
And, by the way,
have you offered the campesina
a piece of the American pie?
Did I hear you say?–
“She can be the baker
in this ‘land of opportunity.'”
See?– Only the rich are free–
free to dictate the right
of their to be
and our not to be
in this, quote, land of liberty.
See?

“No more cookies, please.”

11 thoughts on “Poems by Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo”

  1. Hello,
    My name is Patricia Trujillo-Villalobos. I am the daughter of Marcela Lucero-Trujillo. My mother earned her PHD in 1981 in Linguistics at the University of Minnesota. She has since past on, but remains a legacy within the Chicano Movement and Chicano/Latino communities of Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. Marcela’s picture is a memorial dedicated to her, for her Chicano/Latino community work and educational achievements (bilingual education and Chicano Studies in schools and universities). Marcela’s picture is located in mosaic tiles on the wall of New Convention Center, downtown Denver, Colorado. Please feel free to contact me anytime.
    Sincerely,
    Patricia Trujillo-Villalobos

    1. Hello, I have been searching for information on Marcella since 2010. I really loved her! She was such a wonderful, generous and intelligent woman. I really appreciate this page as it gives specific details about her education. I searched and searched for her Doctoral thesis. Do you know where I can find it?
      Search for me on google. I would love to learn more about her publications. I want my friends who have made a documentary on Chicanas to know more about her.

      Be Blessed Patricia
      Sincerely, Rose Marie Roybal

    2. Hello Patricia. My name is Marlon Ferrey. I work at Centro Tyrone Guzman in Minneapolis, and I have been trying to find out more about Marcela Trujillo, more specifically about her involvement in the founding of Centro Cultural Chicano, the pioneer agency for Latinos in the Twin Cities. We have always known about some of her achievements and how important she was to the building of the community. One of our community rooms is named after her. But I would like to find out more details, if at all possible, about the genesis of CCC and the Latino non-profits here, and about her work as a poet and a Chicana feminist. I thank you
      Sincerely
      Marlon

    3. Hi Patricia, I’m from Alamosa, CO and believe that your mother was on the faculty at
      Adams State College now University. Can you verify this and let me know what year(s)
      she worked and lived here? I would really appreciate hearing back from you. My name
      is Herman Martínez and can be contacted at martinez_herman@outlook.com
      Con amistad, HM

  2. I discovered this as I was finding a great deal of info on your mom. Problem is that is was much repetition with the exception of this item… written in 2005. Don’t know if they found you.

    “Ratliff-Clancy-20050304120003
    To: Jule L. Sigall
    Associate Register for Policy & International Affairs
    Date: 03/04/2005
    From: Clancy Ratliff
    Comment:
    I’m a teacher at the University of Minnesota, and for a first-year writing course, I
    was assembling a course pack, and I wanted to use the poem “Roseville, Minn.,
    U.S.A.” by Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo. The poem was in the book _New Worlds
    of Literature_ 2nd edition, edited by Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. The
    acknowledgement in the book I found the poem in is: “Copyright 1976. Reprinted by
    permission of Patricia Trujillo-Villalobos.” The copyright clearance center at my
    university was never able to track down Patricia Trujillo-Villalobos.”

  3. Hello,

    My name is Mireya I am study ESL at Aims community college.

    I am live in Greeley co. and I am study you mother poem,

  4. Hi, my name is Luis Cortes, a graduate student in the English Literature Dept. at UCSD. I am writing a paper on Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo and am finding it difficult to locate some information. At the moment, I need date of birth and death–but should something else come up, could I contact you further?

  5. rose marie roybal
    Thank you for this.
    I have been looking for information on your mom forever. I will be in Denver December 24 to Jan 6, 2017
    I’d love to talk to you about an amazing project. I’d love to send you a link to the project. I hope you are well, Patricia.

  6. I knew ur mom. She was friends with my mom Bea Roybal and worked on Pinto Project together. Marcella would drive to my mom’s house in Pueblo, CO. They would go to Canon City Penitentiary from there. I also worked on Pinto Project. I taught Chicano Studies behind the wall at old Max. I met … in my class. He later became Marcella’s husband.

  7. Hello,

    I am the granddaughter of Marcella Christine Lucero-Trujillo. My name is Cristina Garcia-Medina. I am proud of my grandmother’s accomplishments and achievements. Especially what she had done for our people. Please feel free to contact me if you have any inquiries.

    Sincerely,
    Cristina
    email: mexiladi@yahoo.com

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