Kristin Naca

Kristin Naca says "Speaking English Is Like":

"Brown and beige and blonde tiles set in panels of tile across the bathroom floor."


On the other hand, she says "Speaking Spanish Is Like":

"A bird in a tree sings to a parrot in a cage, next door."


A bilingual poet should write a similar pair of poems on "Writing English Is Like" and "Writing Spanish Is Like."  I bet that, for a poet whose mother tongue is Spanish, writing English is also like human-made products (like poems) trying desperately to appear beautiful, while writing Spanish is like creatures not made by human hands, but beautiful by nature (pun intended).  Sadly, though, writing Spanish, like speaking Spanish, is always associated with a cage, because the English language has become the language that liberates, whether Spanish speakers and writers like it or not.  But which is in the cage - Spanish or English?  For Naca, it seems that it is English that is the mere parrot.  Is it not strange that she should say that, since the two poems are basically in English with the Spanish trying to enter, even if Spanish is the more melodious and natural language?