When the Department of Arts and Culture announced author, visual artist and Chicano activist Nephtalí De León as the City of San Antonio’s new poet laureate, Executive Director Krystal Jones described him as “one of the most prolific Chicano writers in the literary world today.”
As if to prove the point, De León has since posted an average of one poem per day on his Facebook page, including a seven-stanza thank you to his supporters titled “San Antonio Joy” which touches on a mix of themes common in his work: San Antonio culture, Chicano history, joy and celebration amid struggle.
Other recent poems highlight De León’s activist side, prominent in his poetic voice and community presence.
He explores more complicated subjects, from the mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school in a poem titled “Blood on our Hands,” to the verses of “Indi@s Nuev@s y Lavad@s” detailing longstanding struggles for Chicano rights and recognition in the U.S.:
our only presence was history
especially ensconced in the corners
of museums where they said we belonged
because we natives were gone…
mentiras, look at us now!
very much alive, our bloodlines are back
“It is a necessity — or a duty, or a calling,” De León said, “that when we see injustices, especially those that affect us directly … as a singled-out community, it is our duty as human beings to respond to it.”
Once at odds
In 2014, De León responded to what he saw as injustice in the way the City of San Antonio enforced code compliance against homeowners and tenants by suing the city. The lawsuit accused the city of “acting to usurp the identity, and therefore also thereby the attendant rights, of Complainant and of Complainant’s People, as the only rightful and legitimate ‘Ultimate Sovereign’ of this putative but fraudulent state of the United States of North America.”
In court documents, he is identified as a Coahuiltecan “Indian” (the quotes are the court’s), and the “Complainant’s People” are identified by De León as “the Autochthonous People of this area now called ‘Texas.’”
The case argues for Indigenous sovereignty and rebukes the “Invader-American imposed governance” that would impose laws on colonized peoples.
The lawsuit arose out of a code compliance dispute with the City’s Development Services Department, which De León asserts was part of a pattern of victimizing impoverished residents.
The problem was “not only with me, but with my entire community. Code compliance pursues and persecutes the less privileged, the poor, the uneducated, the vulnerable, the aged,” he told the San Antonio Report. While he asserted that there is nothing wrong with monitoring the appearance of properties and neighborhoods, he said, “let us support them, let us help them, not castigate them and make the situation worse by imposing fines on them.”
The lawsuit was dismissed, with the U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez stating that “The Court has no occasion to opine on the history of relations between the government and Native Americans” and mooting De León’s arguments.
De León’s prior antagonism toward city government clearly didn’t stand in the way of his selection to represent San Antonio as poet laureate. He is the sixth poet laureate to have been honored since the program was established in 2012 under Mayor Julián Castro. Poet laureates are nominated, then a panel of writers makes the selection for the mayoral appointment.
The three members of the jury who selected De León as poet laureate for the 2023-2026 term are all located outside of Texas — Jennifer Givhan from New Mexico, Melissa Kwasny from Montana and Edwin Torres from New York.
They reviewed nominations that focused on his publishing history, community presence and his “willingness to share poetry in formal and informal settings with all,” according to Jones.
She declined to comment on the lawsuit.
There is a peculiar irony in now being accepted as the poetic voice of the same government he once fought, De León said.
“I shall have to accept the kindness of that aspect of humanity that would allow me this honor, that will allow me this platform,” he said. “We have to live with each other, after all, and we cannot live on the edge of unkindness.”
Activism and diplomacy
Outgoing poet laureate Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson was appointed in 2020, just days before the citywide shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, and served through a tumultuous period that included the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and subsequent nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
The poet and singer engaged her activist side when she teamed with Centro San Antonio to create a street mural surrounding Travis Park that read “Jubilant and exuberant is the melanin of our skin / From despair, we have arisen,” which sought to replace hatred and violence with a message of joy and self-affirmation, Sanderson said at the time.
“I thought [that] as a Black woman, I need to speak to this issue,” she said, and as poet laureate, “I have a public office, and I have a space where I can share, and people will be open to hearing what I have to say.”
Sanderson said serving as the poetic voice of the city requires elevating dialogue to include everyone, adding that the position also requires tact and diplomacy when speaking on delicate or divisive issues.
“When you are a poet laureate, your duty is to survey where there are voids, where there are disparities, where there’s marginalization, and try to figure out how can you speak to it all,” she said.
Sanderson said De León is well-positioned to speak to San Antonio’s past and future, given his long experience as a pioneer of Chicano literature and as a keen observer of humanity.
La Raza
Norma Elia Cantú, a distinguished professor of the humanities at Trinity University, said she became aware of De León decades ago through his work with the Chicano Movement in his native Laredo and around South Texas.
She recognized the strong activist and social justice-focused tenor of his poetry and said, “I think it’s a necessary trait for a poet in San Antonio, with all of our history, especially for Chicanos.”
Among the frequently repeated phrases in De León’s poems are exhortations to “La Raza,” a term that arose in the Chicano civil rights era that can be defined generally as “the people,” referring primarily to people of Latin American descent, but often associated with Mexican Americans.
Cantú is aware that many younger people aren’t so keen on the term, preferring more current identifiers such as Latinx or Latine that are more inclusive of the Latin American diaspora.
“Nowadays, because it’s pretty much a historical epoch, people don’t necessarily identify with it or claim it,” she said of the term. However, “the reality [is] that we still need a movement because we still have those conditions,” Cantú said of institutional discrimination against Mexican Americans that gave rise to La Raza Unida, the political arm of the Chicano Movement.
‘A reflection of the people’
De León proclaims himself the proud child of migrant workers traveling all over Texas for work. He grew up as a migrant worker and has no formal education beyond high school, somewhat unusual for poets laureate, the majority of whom possess advanced degrees and hold academic positions.
Cantú said this very quality makes De León particularly well-suited to serve his community. He works within the Mexican poetic tradition of declamación, in which the poet recites verse aloud as a performance, vocally transmitting reflections on history and culture.
She characterized his selection as San Antonio’s newest poet laureate as bringing an outsider into the house of power.
“He’s the perfect choice, because he does represent the people and he’ll make poetry relevant to the people,” Cantú said.
Local poet Victoria Fennell agrees. She ran an open mic poetry night at the Barrio Barista café for five years prior to the pandemic and frequently included De León in her programming. Fennell learned of his work through her parents, who kept his books around the house, including the children’s book I Will Catch the Sun, published in 1973.
Fennell regards De León as “a great poet, [and a] great choice for poet laureate,” in part because “he represents this city of San Antonio very well. He is a reflection of the people.”
Fennell made note of De León’s characteristic style: he is nearly always dressed in colorful clothing and wearing an array of beaded necklaces. “Although some might say he is a vision of someone from the ’70s who has time-traveled,” she said lightheartedly, “he gives back to the community. He’s a part of our community. He’s involved with our community” and is “generous” with his time.
Jones highlighted De León’s community involvement and emphasized the importance of the poet laureate’s role in “developing innovative and inspiring public events and programs.”
“What is particularly striking about his work is his observations of everyday life — the highs, lows, and in-betweens,” Jones said. “His poetry also provides a voice for the voiceless.”
De León said he remains as fervently opposed to colonization as he was when he sued the city nearly a decade ago, but in the poet laureate role, he intends to be a unifier. His goal is to unite, “so we can learn to live fairly, justly, kindly with each other, and make reparations in the best way we can,” he said. “So that we can all be tranquil and at peace with each other mentally, spiritually, physically and economically.”
De León’s first official appearance as San Antonio Poet Laureate was scheduled for Saturday at the Viva Poesia event at the Mission Marquee Plaza celebrating National Poetry Month. His next appearance is planned to be at his investiture ceremony April 10 at City Hall.
