| 20 Questions for Oscar Bermeo |
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Written by Oscar Bermeo
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What inspires poet Oscar Bermeo? Here’s a hint. It has something to do with married bliss, Irish rock bands, good food, and of course, family. Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is the author of Anywhere Avenue and Palimpsest. His poems appear in BorderSenses, CrossBRONX, The November 3rd Club, Ozone Park and Spindle, among others. Oscar has been a featured writer at a variety of institutions including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Intersection for the Arts, Kearny Street Workshop, Bronx Academy of Letters, Rikers Island Penitentiary, San Quentin Prison, the Loft Literary Center, Sacramento Poetry Center, UC Berkeley, UNC-Chapel Hill, NYU and many others. He now makes his home in Oakland, with his wife, poeta Barbara Jane Reyes.What is your most distinct characteristic? I have a true love of language and its possibility. Everyday I hear a turn in a phrase or some new slang and think how much poetry is out there in the world waiting to be highlighted in a book. What quality do you most value in your friends? Patience. I can talk people's ears off with stories about the last great book I read, or a poetry reading that completely wowed me, and then go into what's the next show I'm going to hit, or which book I'm reading next. It helps to have people who'll let you go on and on like that about your passion.
What is your Achilles' Heel?
My grammar. I always swear that I have the worst essay skills on the planet and for the life of me I still can't figure out the proper use of the semicolon.
What would be your last meal on earth?
My mom's ceviche de camarones with some sango de camarones on the side all on a bed of hot, fluffy, long grain white rice. I'd wash it all down with an ice-cold Tropical and enjoy a flan, also from my mother's oven, for dessert.
What is your idea of happiness?
Being able to listen and record all the sounds in the world, Hearing stories from elders who know more about the world than Wikipedia does. Helping children discover the rules of the English language and then encouraging them to throw those rules to the side so they can invent their own dictionary that best describes their own life.
What is your idea of misery?
To have no voice.
Can you share a joke with us?
Q: What do you get when you raise an Ecuadorian kid in the South Bronx?
A: A Sorta-Rican.
In what country would you like to live?
It would have to be somewhere with great food and the same weather as Oakland so I'd say either Greece or the South of France.
Who is your favorite fictional character?
Dream of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.
Who is your favorite musician?
U2. I first heard their stuff in the mid 80s at the Black Celebrations, basement apartment New Wave parties in the Bronx, where we rocked out to the Smiths, Depeche Mode, the B52s, Billy Idol, New Order and the like. Out of all those bands, U2 became the group that kept changing, growing, starting over again, messed up, and continued rocking out like it was still the 80s.
What is your ethnic heritage?
I'm born in Ecuador, raised in the Bronx, brought up on NuyoRican slang and poetry, and now rep Oaktown.
Who is your favorite artist?
Martín Espada for being a role model for politically conscious poets who are out to create challenging literature that is relevant to Latino communities.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My wife, Barbara Jane Reyes. She's a prolific poet, educator, editor, and lecturer who goes into academic institutions and grass roots venue with poise, fire and a mission to keep poetics as open and accessible as possible.
What historical figure do you admire?
My dad for being the first person to teach me about my own history and how I can shape it.
What do you most dislike?
Cliques, elitism, marginalization, reticence, ghettoization and Kalamata olives.
What historical figure do you most despise?
Robert Moses. He is revered for creating most of the parks and highways in New York City but it came at the expense of low income farmers and burgeoning urban communities.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
The ability to sing or play a musical instrument. At the very least, to be able to jam out at a karaoke bar.
How would you like to die? I don't plan to die. I plan on having a bunch of books in libraries and schools with my name on them so I can keep living forever like Neruda, García Lorca, and Bolaño.
What is your present state of mind?
Chillax. I have a great 9-5, attend and participate in diverse literary events, have time to write, and enjoy the support of my wife, family, and friends. Yeah, very chillax.
What is your motto? Currently, I keep repeating some lines from "Love Poem for My People" by Pedro Pietri: do not dream/
if you want your dreams/
to come true
What does being Latino mean to you?
Acknowledging you come from a diverse (often contradictory) heritage and using that to create even more diversity in the world. That and having white rice with every meal.
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