“I Ain’t Going to Hurry No More”

Jesse F. Garcia

Reader: Yolie (Yolanda Luttrell)

Respondent: Vickie Baillio            Recorder: Simone Rieck

 I. Biography

            Jesse F. Garcia was born in Devine, Texas in the early 1950’s. As the son of cotton picking migrant workers, he traveled constantly throughout Texas, and other states in search for work.  His poem I Ain’t Going to Hurry No More, was first published in 1992 in the zine Red Dirt. Since then he has also published his first volume of poetry entitled, Rock ‘N’ Roll Dreams.

II. Course Objectives

Objective 2b: To detect “class” as a repressed subject of American discourse.

            Race may replace class divisions of power, labor, or ‘place’.

Objective 3c: Mexican American Narrative; “The Ambivalent Minority”

Mexican Americans may exemplify immigrant culture as individuals or families who come to America for economic gain but suffer social dislocation.

Objective 5a: To discover the power of poetry and fiction to help “others” hear the minority voice and vicariously share the minority experience.

Objective 5d: To note development and variations of Standard English by minority writers and speakers.

 III. Poem Recited

IV. Interpretation

            The speaker clearly does not see himself as an immigrant but he does identifies himself as separate from the dominant “white” culture. The line “I don’t care if he calls me Mexican Joe” is an example that the poet does not care if he is compared to a Mexican immigrant; he might see himself only as an American minority. The poem liberates the author from his perpetually deprived life. He feels that no matter how hard he works; he will never be able rise above or be equal to the dominant white culture, so why even try anymore. He is completely hopeless, and feels that the only way to change his situation in life is if he had been born white.  The poet is engrossed and fed up with his situation which shows in the third stanza in the lines “Catalogs and corn cobs in the out-house in the back/ The day I die the rest will be my reward…” in which a tone of both anger and despair is detected. This line combines all that he feels he has gathered and accomplished in life, the stool in the out-house.  The style of this poem is unique to the minority cultures, which occasionally deviates from Standard English.

            In a past presentation by Teresa Ferguson- She also adds Objective 4 Assimilation the Resistance. She writes, “The Mexican came to America planning to assimilate. He realizes the promises were not going to be met and resists the white man”.

IV. Questions

1.      The phrase “I Ain’t Going to Hurry No More” sounds much like the old Negro songs of the slaves in a cotton plantation. Do you think the author borrowed this line on purpose, is he comparing the migrant workers to being treated as though they too were slaves?

2.      What ‘fears’ is the author referring to?

3.      Why is the word Mexican spelled with a “K”? What emphasis is he trying to place in the word?

Discussion:

Question One –

Regarding the phrase, “I ain’t going to hurry no more,” modulating a Negro spiritual.  “Is the author comparing the immigrant workers on the fields to being treated as though they were too slaves?”

Yolie begins discussion on the first question by asking if the author is making an attempt to go back in time, maybe to show that things haven’t changed much since the plantation holders used to slave-drive, on the cotton fields, for instance.  

Laura responded by saying she believed the author was not trying to be disrespectful, but was simply trying to state, “I don’t care.”

Dr. White states that he’s resisting, or not buying into, the immigrant story.  He interprets, “If you’re not white then there’s no future.”  So the immigrant dream doesn’t apply.

Vicki asserts that the poem sounds like a ballad and compares it to slave songs. She states that she could picture a man in the field feeling like his life wasn’t going to change.  She continues by stating that members of the dominate culture may move up the ladder; whereas, minorities won’t move up, so they develop the attitude of “Why hurry?”

 Dr. White refers to the lines speaking of cotton candy and cotton picking and how the white man is in Disney land eating cotton candy, white the Mexican man is in the cotton fields.

 Addie says that Disney land is iconic.  Most families in the dominant culture, even if they are poor, want to go to Disneyland.  They will work toward going and taking their kids.

 Dr. White articulates that only the man from the dominant culture can be governor; whereas, the migrant worker will always be working for other people.

 Question Two –

 “What “fears” is the author referring to?”

 Yolie asks whether the author was talking about the wars we had fought or of the race.

 Addie speaks about the white attitude toward other races.  She relates to the white fear of Indians and how we “threw them out;” she relates to the fear of African American males.  She expresses that the fear white people have of other races (emphasizing African American males) is evident in the media, through shows such as “COPS.”  She continues by referring to the world global system and our fear of other countries.

 Jerri responds by saying that the ultimate dominant fear is the fear of loss of autonomy.  She elaborates by revealing the fear of domination by other cultures and relates the belief (paranoia) of competition over jobs, college, and economic stability.  She then states that America fights wars because of our fear of other systems (i.e. Communism, dictatorship).  The son in the poem (“Son to fight war”) is fighting someone else’s battle.  He has no hope for being antonymous.

Valerie L. states that the military probably offers more to the minorities than most other careers.

 Yolie agrees and says it is their only way out of the fields.

 Dr. White then compares the poem to the Senate race, whose sons are fighting wars, and racial warfare.  He mentions that we are not supposed to talk about race.  Then he refers to Bless Me Ultima when the three brothers are sent to fight in the war.  Perhaps the military is a way of proving minorities are members of the country and that they have rights (the Civil Rights movement).  However, the commanders are almost always members of the dominant culture.

 Question Three –

 “Why is the word Mexican spelled with a ‘k’?  What emphasis is he trying to place on that word?”

 Yolie states that she’s never heard the phrase, “Mexikan Joe” before.

 Dr. White responds that the way you would normally hear it (Mexikan Joe) is Injun Joe or Indian Joe.  He believes the author may be playing around            with it, but he’s never heard it expressed that way before.  He then brings the discussion back to spelling Mexican with a ‘k.’

 Jerri affirms that ‘k’ isn’t a letter used often in Spanish; possibly the author was using the letter as a way of Americanizing the word and culture.

 Sarah M. offered that the spelling might have been an attempt to stress the American pronunciation of the word… Mexi-kan.

 Jerri responds that maybe the change was symbolic of America taking the “can” out of Mexicans as a culture.