It will be a homecoming for Alejandro Jimenez April 28-29.
The slam poet and author grew up in Hood River, and is coming back as Hood River County Reads’ featured author. His book, “Moreno. Prieto. Brown.,” is one of this year’s selections, and numerous events, from discussions to panels, have already taken place. (“brown girl dreaming,” by Jacqueline Woodson, is the other, aimed at children and teens.)
This weekend’s events — a 10:30 a.m. poetry writing workshop and 2 p.m. program on April 28 in English, and a 1:30 p.m. presentation at Mid Valley Elementary on April 29 in Spanish — will focus on poems from his book as well as more recent works, his time in Hood River, and his journey — “‘Making it,’ or trying to make it,” he said — as an artist.
He will also tell the story of how he came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant at 8 years old. He received his green card in high school.
Jimenez came to Hood River in November 1995 from Colima, Mexico. His parents were already acquainted with the area, having worked in orchards for five years.
He had been living with his grandmother, but came to the United States to attend his mother’s wedding.
“We got to Tijuana,” he said, “and I just thought it was another city in Mexico. I met some uncles I’d never met, and they were the ones who tossed me over (the wall).
“Back then, it was easier (to cross the border) — you didn’t have to cross mountains, you just went to the border between San Diego and Tijuana. I was using the papers of some other grandkid who looked like me. I closed my eyes, and I woke up and I was in San Diego. I was asleep for the most crucial part of my life.”
His mother and brother, Heriberto Castillo, met him in Los Angeles, and they took the Greyhound back to the Gorge.
“That was the first time I’d seen snow so close,” he remembered. “I thought, ‘What is this? It’s too cold!’ but it was fun.”
He attended Parkdale Elementary and Wy’east Middle School, graduating from Hood River Valley High School in 2005. He became the first member of his family to earn a college degree when he graduated from Willamette University in 2009, majoring in sociology and minoring in ethics studies.
While he’s always enjoyed reading and writing, he didn’t think either would be something he would peruse in his adult life — so being selected as this year’s Hood River County Reads author has been a surprising, humbling experience.
“It’s such a huge surprise. It’s a huge honor, and I’m super humbled … I’m super excited and super intimidated. I looked at the other authors who have gotten this — (Francisco) Jimenez, (Luis Alberto) Urrea — wow, that’s crazy that I can have my name amongst those writers,” he said. “I’m super grateful for the committee and from what I hear, the response has been good so far. I’m super excited to go back home in this manner.”
His favorite poem in “Moreno. Prieto. Brown.” was also the hardest to write: “My Town.”
“It’s a dream that I keep having,” he said. “I like it because it was super easy to write, just because it came naturally, but it was hard because I was writing about a town that may or may not be there when I return” — his hometown of Colima.
The poems were written a few months before publication. Having such open, honest work “feels weird” in some respects, he said, like he’s coming home to people who have now seen him naked.
He hopes that the book will serve as a model for those going through the same experiences as he did growing up.
“It’s finding the empowering aspect of it all instead of the dehumanizing aspect, and using that as a catapult for change,” Jimenez said.
“That’s something I try to talk to my friends about — everything that has happened to us happened because of all these messed up things in society, and (it’s) just acknowledging them and breaking them apart, (and) empowering ourselves.”
He began writing poetry in high school, but was introduced to performance poetry in college.
“I thought, ‘That’s amazing. They’re yelling, they’re crying, the inflection in their voice, their body movements are amazing,’ so in college, I was like, ‘Wow, I want to do that — I have this story to tell and I want to tell it the way I want to tell it, and I want to tell it like that,’” he said.
Jimenez is a program manager at a Denver high school, where he works with a variety of students, from juniors and seniors “doing amazing in school” to freshman and sophomores who are struggling. The older students mentor the younger, with Jimenez facilitating.
“I try to teach them how to deal with emotions — how to write, how to talk, how to process, and how to handle (them),” he said. “They learn basic, very essential skills that everybody needs to survive — emotional awareness, emotional smarts.”
He began his career as a community organizer around immigration rights, which is what brought him to Denver.
“Now, it’s more like activist work,” he said, “whatever I do on my own time — reading, writing poems about it. But I got burned out on the nitty-gritty of it all.”
For more information on all Hood River County Reads events, visit hoodriverlibrary.org/friends/hood-river-reads.
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