DMC libraries and the Mexican American Studies Program celebrated National Poetry Month with an extended invitation to San Antonio poet and author Alex Z. Salinas at Wolfe Recital Hall on April 13.
Salinas has written two full-length books of poetry, “Warbles” (2019) and “Dreamt or the Lingering Phantoms of Equinox” (2020), a collection of stories in “City Lights from the Upside Down” (2021) and two books of poetry called “Trash Poems” (July 2023) and “Hispanic Sonnets” (fall 2023) that are to be released later this year.
DMC Reference Librarian Alan Berecka introduced Salinas.
“We met during the pandemic through an email. During Alex’s ‘City Lights from the Upside Down,’ I thought he wanted to give me one of his books to add to my collection, which is what every author asks. Instead, he told me, ‘This book has been reviewed by Kirkus,’ which is one of the best honorary book reviews there is. I looked him up. Read his poetry. And now here I am introducing him to you,” Berecka said.
Salinas dove into sections from each of his books and later explained the inspiration of each reading.
His book “City Lights from the Upside Down,” in which a reasonable amount of his work is in honor of his family’s rich Hispanic heritage, started out as a novel which turned into a book of poems and sonnets.
He attempted to be a fiction writer but most of his books are those of fiction sonnets mixed with nonfiction moments that became part of his memory and his creativity.
“Here’s the thing, I wanted to be a fiction writer but all the books that keep coming out are poetry. You get called ‘a poet’ which always made me uncomfortable, but I embraced it,” Salinas said.
Salinas discussed his grandparents, who mostly spoke Spanish, and explained his attempt to understand them. Through his reading he read a poem about how when his paternal grandma would try to speak to him, he didn’t know what she was saying. In a desperate attempt to connect with her grandson, she would pull out the box, shake it side to side and ask young Salinas to play with her.
“My grandmother was born in Mexico. The game Connect-Four helped me communicate with her,” Salinas said.
Salinas discussed his upcoming book “Trash Poems,” which are mostly photos of random items with his poetry writings from coffee cups to small leaves.
“This project took me over a year and a half. I’m calling it ‘Trash Poems’ because I started writing poems on gum wrappers. I would at least feel like I used something this small and turned it into art,” Salinas said.
Jennifer J. Jimenez, reference/eResources librarian and assistant professor of learning resources, and Berecka requested to have Salinas at Heritage campus.
“My goal to have Alex for National Poetry Month is for our students to be inspired by him,” Jimenez said. “Poetry can be so many different things.”
