Poets of the Rio Grande Valley: Second in a Series
Sol Garcia | THE RIDER
When José Antonio Rodríguez was in his mid-twenties, he started to channel his thoughts into a journal. Now, some of those thoughts have become published poems.
Most of the poems focus on the culture of the South Texas border area.
“A lot of my writing concerns the border area, the South Texas-Mexico border,” the poet said. “A lot of it is autobiographical, or begins in autobiography, and explores the complexity of the culture here.”
Rodríguez, who is a creative writing associate professor at UTRGV, chooses to write about the border area for its uniqueness.
“It’s a unique place in relation to the rest of the country,” he said. “It challenges a lot of the narratives about the nation.”
Some of those narratives include “the idea of cohesiveness, the idea of inclusivity, the idea of citizenship, because in this area–it’s in a lot of ways, it’s marginalized and it’s unique in its border militarization.”
Since 2004, Rodríguez has been writing narrative poetry to tell stories about living in the border area.
“Narrative poetry is very accessible,” he said. “It tends to use everyday speech, not particularly heightened language. It’s rich in symbolism and metaphor, and I think that’s the root of why stories are important to us as human beings.”
After he writes a first draft, Rodríguez will engage in emotional distance, meaning he doesn’t come back to it until he is ready. When he is ready, he will finalize the poem.
“I believe in emotional distance from what you’ve written that allows you to see things a little bit more clearly,” he said. “I go back to a group of poems, and I fiddle with them, and then I put them away again, and then I go back to them again and, eventually, I get something like a final draft.”
In 2007, his first published poem appeared in the literary journal, “Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review.” He has continued writing poetry and prose since then, releasing his own poetry collections and a memoir titled “House Built on Ashes.”
Through his poems, readers gain glimpses of life and of himself.
“I would describe them as intimate snapshots of a life,” he said. “It’s just really beautiful to think that my work is out there, being read by people, people who don’t know me, except through these words.”
One of the lessons Rodríguez has learned as a poet is that writing comes with vulnerability.
“All forms of writing require vulnerability because vulnerability is about being open and being curious and being OK with uncertainty and with doubt and requires exploration,” he said.
Rodríguez was born in Mexico and grew up in McAllen with many challenges, a theme he is honest about in his poems and hopes resonates with readers.
“I had a very difficult childhood, very difficult adolescence, a lot of economic hardship and other forms of hardships and struggles, and I hope that people who read my poetry see … something of beauty in me, something of value and worth,” he said.
After completing undergraduate degrees in biology and theatre arts and a master’s in English at the University of Texas-Pan American, Rodríguez attended Binghamton University in New York for a doctorate in English. Sometime after graduating, he found his passion for literature renewed, inspiring him to write poetry.
“I reconnected with my love of literature from my childhood,” he said. “I saw literature as this sort of beautiful work of art, and I really, really wanted to be able to create that.”
Now living in Edinburg, the 47-year-old author keeps writing in his journal to create that art but also to cope with anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has pushed us overall, in general, to do less, to stay home, to do less socializing, to do less moving around, to do less traveling, to do less engaging with the world, and so, a lot of us are struggling with a sense of not being productive enough,” he said. “Writing and working on poetry helps to alleviate some of that anxiety.”
Writing, whether it’s for publishing or personal reasons, is always beneficial and accessible, Rodríguez said.
“One of the beauties of creative writing or writing as an art form is that it doesn’t require a lot of equipment,” he said. “It’s just a book, and a notebook and a pen, and you’re set to go.”
Rodríguez recommends that everyone start writing down thoughts to gain an understanding of their lives.
“It’s a great tool for exploration of the self and of the world and inevitably leads to greater clarity and greater understanding,” he said. “It does the individual good.”
To read more about Rodríguez’s work, visit his website.
