Luis Chaluisan’s Spic Chic (Fly by Night Press, 2009)

Luis Chaluisan’s Spic Chic (Fly by Night Press, 2009)

The rules of poetry are created by its author, much as a criminal operates both within and away from society, as he or she sees fit. Thus, it’s no wonder so many poets past and present have dabbled in crime and have written about these adventures of subculture. Luis Chaluisan’s poems are odes—both celebratory and regretful—to his experiences as a New York-born Puerto Rican surviving on the streets of New York. And I’m not talking about the well-heeled New York of today, but of the smoldering 1970s and 1980s. (I remember living in the East Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx during the late 1970s, and anyone involved in crime who survived to write about it gets instant applause for that alone).

Luis “El Extreme” Chaluisan—a musician, writer, and former news reporter—is in no denial of his controversy, as spelled out in the book’s opening disclaimer statement. Although I thought I knew what I was walking into when I read this book at the Section 13 jetty of the “Bronx Riviera” recently (Orchard Beach), I was thrown for some surprises. These twenty-plus pieces range from serious (“Johnny Boy”) to whimsical (“Surfing in the South Bronx”) and Chaluisan’s greatest effectiveness is achieved when he releases his honest emotions for public viewing—which you almost don’t expect him to do (“I slide precariously alongside her path, at once tender, then off-center”, from “Carmen Baby”).

In “Wilfredo the Anointed Apostle”, about a gay santero barber, Chaluisan explains, “So before we crucify him with whispered nails…homo, queer, fazzy hole…stop and think…perhaps a person’s lifestyle is really a blessing, for who are we to know God’s ways and plans…when we’re walking together, people just stop and stare…but if you could see him through my eyes, he wouldn’t be a faggot but a man.” Spic Chic is an exciting tour of jazz and salsa clubs, women of pleasure, of the island, of desperate people struggling to survive—of joy and pain—but it’s also about transformation. It’s about becoming greater and wiser than what doom had planned for your soul.

To purchase Spic Chic, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Spic-Chic-Adventures-Last-Nuyorican/dp/1930083173/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252714904&sr=8-1

Story by Charlie Vázquez