Anthology of Latino voices

Anthology of Latino voices
There are Latinos in Wisconsin?

(Above) Oscar Mireles; (far
left) a predecessor of this
Latino Anthology was
published in 1999
Daisy Cubias, a native of El Salvador, is a long-time poet, educator, and human rights activist currently residing in Milwaukee. Cubias often uses her poetry
to comment on human rights tragedies and political instability in her native homeland. In the 1999 “I didn’t know there were Latinos in Wisconsin,” however,
Cubias commented instead on the “tragedy” of high heels. She writes:

Why Women Wear High Heels?

Because we want to look tall,
being so short
and we want to feel good,
feeling so sad.

Later in the poem, she writes:

Who invented them anyway?
It was a man who hated his wife,
his mother, and his sister
because they were mean to him
when he was growing up
one day he decided to invent
a new way of torture
And punish all women
for life and centuries to come
He formed a secret society
and all men belong to it
for hundreds of years
they’ve been meeting
all over the world
to plan new ways of torture
to destroy female feet
to unbalance our bodies

In the end, Cubias calls for a revolution, telling women, “Let’s all go BAREFOOT!”
The newest anthology will also feature the work of the editor himself; Oscar Mireles. Mireles’ day job entails heading up Omega School, an alternative
school in Madison that helps students obtain their GED or HSED. In the past, Mireles has described Omega School as “access point” for students who previously
struggled in a traditional school setting to overcome obstacles and get a new lease on life. He also serves as board president for Centro Hispano, coaches the
Edgewood High School wrestling team, and tends to his four older children. His writing, he said, “is probably the only thing I do for myself. It is really how I
express how I feel and see things.”
Mireles said the idea for a Wisconsin-based Latino anthology surfaced after he encountered a number of people across the nation who uttered phrases
similar to, “I didn’t know there were Latinos in Wisconsin.” It is the voice of these diverse Latinos that Mireles hopes to share.
“What does a Chicano in Wisconsin look like?” Mireles mused. “One thing I know is that we look different than a Chicano looks like in California. [These writers]
share the common experience that they are in Wisconsin.”
Yet, each voice is different: in experience, in style, in message.
Mireles hopes, too, that non-Latino readers will take note of these writers and their words.
“With the focus on immigration, there is a lot of unnecessary fear,” he said. “People are here for the same American Dream. Our dream isn’t different.
Latinos want to make this an even better country than it is.”
While Mireles said there is a continuous theme in all of his anthologies that reveal a certain pride in being in the United States, there is also a certain
longing for that elusive home. Maybe sometimes there is also an awakening akin to what Mireles writes about in his poem “ ‘Love Mexican Style’ is not a reality
television show:”
or maybe
the natural rhythms
of old Mexico
have been awakened

Maybe, they have.