Trochemoche: Poems - Softcover

Trochemoche (TROH-chay MOH-chay) means helterskelter in Spanish, and this book is dedicated to the helterskelter of the barrio--both its chaotic good and bad.

Many of the poems are narrative, relying upon the metaphor of the poem's event rather than densely figurative language. In "Freeway Flyin' Burrito Man," the Mexican speaker of the poem is confronted by a biker buddy of his white girlfriend, who tries to scare the speaker with a motorcycle adaptation of the game "Chicken." The speaker gets the girl; the biker hits the road, after some significant glaring.

Rodriguez seems to use narrative with great control. Perhaps too much control. His most passionate words come not from the cool, sharp-eyed stories but from the often surprising images that he creates, images that build and rebuild the life of the barrio. In "Reflection on an El Train Glass," the speaker becomes mesmerized as "a vise of sun grips a shape, / an innuendo of myself" and the past reveals its hazy multiple layers. In the stirring poem "Securo Que Hell Yes!" the poet explains the effects of racism and oppression as a nightmare that has occurred so frequently that "it's a song / beneath our breathing," yet it won't stop the dream of returning to the America that his people helped to build. The imagery provides a bridge for understanding the harsh events of the barrio.

Luis J. Rodríguez has published fifteen books of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction. He is best known for his 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. His awards include a Finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award, a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, a Paterson Poetry Prize, a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and fellowships from the Sundance Institute, the Lannan Foundation, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Chicago, the California Arts Council, and the Illinois Arts Council, among others. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 chose Luis J. Rodríguez as Poet Laureate of the city. Luis is also Visiting Scholar at California State University, Northridge.