Javier Zamora at Sacred Heart School
photo credit: Dan Vera
by Therese Konopelski
(Notre Dame class of 2020)
(Notre Dame class of 2020)
Javier Zamora, author of the poetry collection Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, 2017), visited Washington D.C. the week of February 26th. Zamora made the journey from his native El Salvador to the United States as an unaccompanied minor in 1999 at the age of 9. Currently, he is a Wallace Stegner fellow in creative writing at Stanford University.
That Monday he met
with college students at the University of California Washington Center for
their “Monday Night Forum.” He was interviewed by Notre Dame faculty member
Francisco Aragón, who organized Zamora’s visit.
Following the interview, he spent time answering student questions. “The
literary world is not accepting of undocumented people,” said Zamora, a TPS
holder himself, inspiring student DREAMERS to “dream a better world to not be
so hopeless.” Acknowledging the crossroads between art and politics, Zamora
strives to “never be complacent and always try to grow” in his craft while
teaching and fostering activism.
February 26:
photo credit: UCDC
 |
| photo credit: Francisco Aragón |
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
On the afternoon of February 27th, Zamora
visited Sacred Heart, an urban bilingual Catholic school in Columbia Heights,
where many of the students are also of Central American heritage. The students
in local poet Carlos Parada Ayala’s Spanish class translated and performed a
select group of Zamora’s poems, prompting Zamora to take interest in
translating his poetry from English into Spanish, as well. Zamora told the students
that poetry was a “way to open up and to heal” when he started writing at 17. He
signed books for the students, who all received Unaccompanied due to the
generosity of a local DC benefactor. “It was amazing, the connection we
experienced between the kids and Javier,” Parada Ayala said, of Zamora’s
transformative visit to the school.
Sacred Heart students hold up their copies of Unaccompanied.
photo credit: Dan Vera
Javier Zamora taking a selfie with Sacred Heart students
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
February 27:
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
 |
| photo credit: Francisco Aragón |
photo credit: Dan Vera
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
 |
| photo credit: Francisco Aragón |
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
Javier Zamora with LOC and NEA staff
Javier Zamora with LOC and NEA staff
On February 28th, Zamora gave a public
reading at the UC Washington Center. The Wednesday evening event was
co-presented by Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at Notre Dame’s
Institute for Latino Studies, and Duende District Bookstore, and was publicized
by a number of local literary organizations and universities, including: Casa
de la Cultura El Salvador, Split This Rock, American University, the University
of Maryland, and Georgetown University. Zamora debuted two commissioned poems as
part of the Poetry Coalition’s 2018 program, “Where My Dreaming and My Loving
Live: Poetry and the Body.” When asked, during the Q & A session afterwards,
about poets like himself, Zamora said “There was no book about what I
experienced in middle school and high school,” and that he anticipates “another
huge wave of El Salvadoran poetry in 10 years.” After speaking about activism
through his poetry and plans for his future Zamora remarked, “In my poetry and
everyday life I’m searching for joy.”
photo credit: UCDC
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
photo credit: Dan Vera
February 28:
 |
| Duende District's Angela Spring. photo credit: Francisco Aragón |
Ana Patricia Rodríguez, Javier Zamora
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
Javier Zamora signing books at the UC Washington Center
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
Zamora concluded his week-in-residence
at the UC Washington Center on March 1st with a gathering of university students enrolled
in “Politics and Poems: Writing Verse in DC,” a writing workshop offered by Notre
Dame. When asked about editing, Zamora said “titles are the hardest thing for
me” and that he is "obsessed with revision.” He spoke about his major literary
influences including Roque Dalton and June Jordan (Poetry for the People),
hoping that he could “honor their lineage of making poetry matter.”
Zamora felt inspired by his visit to
Washington and, recalling his visit to Sacred Heart— perhaps the highlight of
his DC visit—plans to translate some of his poetry this summer. “I thought, If
these kids can do it, why can’t I?”
To learn more about Javier Zamora,
visit his website:
http://www.javierzamora.net/ 
photo credit: Francisco Aragón
Dan Vera, Javier Zamora, Therese Konopelski
at Sacred Heart school
Dan Vera, Javier Zamora, Therese Konopelski
at Sacred Heart school
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