CRISTOGIANNI BORSELLA

Medocentric: In Acclamation Of Brown Humanity

by Julian Gallo (writer), May 25, 2009, published in BrooWaha New York

Cristogianni Borsella's New Poetry Book explores the idea of a Mediterranean Identity.

Medocentric: In Acclamation of Brown Humanity

By Cristogianni Borsella

Poetry

www.Booksurge.com

I first became familiar with Cristogianni Borsella’s work through an article that was written about him in Primo Magazine, which is a magazine that is dedicated to Italian-American themes and Italian History. In that article, he had discussed the issues that had faced (and to some degree still face) with regard to stereotypes and discrimination. The book he had written about that issue, “On Persecution and Identity”, was certainly an eye opener for me because in it, he pointed out things that I have been wondering about and feeling myself from time to time.

“Medocentric: In Acclimaton of Brown Humanity”, Borsella’s debut poetry book, continues with some of these themes but takes them even further. Not only does he revisit the themes of the Italian American experience in these poems but also the immigrant experience in general, often drawing parallels between the modern immigration experience and the early 20th century experience of Italians when they first came to these shores. Even more so, he tackles the themes of a “Mediterranean Identity”, which is, not Black, not quite White, but somewhere “in between”, playing off the literal meaning of the word “Mediterranean”---Middle Earth. These poems argue for a Mediterranean Identity, something I wholeheartedly support.

In the book’s introduction, Borsella writes, “This particular compilation of poems is called “Medocentric”, because the majority of works are written from what I believe is a Mediterranean/American perspective. This means that many poems are geared toward ethnic Americans, Italian Americans, Hispanic Americans, minority peoples and others (especially those coming from the Mediterranean Basin) who have, at one time or another, been branded “browns” by the white establishment in the United States”.

Having visited similar themes in my own recent work, this book was an absolute pleasure for me to read, mainly because I found myself identifying fully with many of these poems. This is not to mention that they are also very well written, powerful, honest expressions of not only the modern Italian-American experience but of the Latino experience as well. The poem “The Little Working Man”:

The little working man sat on the site, taking a break,

His tawny brown skin glistening in the mid-day sun;

He was building something for his bourgeois bosses---

He didn’t care, as long as they paid.

Giuseppe, Fuckin’ Dago, Boy, Wop---

He answered to them all, as long as he got paid.

Tin can full of water, sweat pouring from his face,

A car drives by in slo-mo---

A Model T full of round-headed beauties,

Bundles of black hair lined up in the back seat,

Two gavones riding up front.

Lucky bastards.

Today the same little working guy

Watches ‘84 minivans and Nissans go by,

Occasionally the un-tinted windows

Let him peak inside getting a brief glance

At the girls in the back.

He’s still the same age, same race,

Same face.

But now he answers to Juan.

In the poem “Dead Ancestors”, Borsella continues these themes. What exactly does it feel like to be an “ethnic” in a predominately Anglo-Saxon society?

I’m a man who’s roots lie

In the crossroads of three continents---

Not like a geo-culturally rootless “Cablasian”

But like a mighty sequoia,

My foundation is primeval,

Centered at a millennial focal point;

The cross-pollination of cultures

Permeates my being.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember this

In the Anglo-dominated phony

Multicultural “As long as you’re a Smith

Or a Jones” continent on which I live.

But I carry this reality with me

Every day of my life,

Regardless of how you ‘Mericans

Judge my exterior whenever I

Open my door to step out….

I can relate to this poem, and have always felt it, but was never able to articulate it. Borsella’s poems gives voice to the silent but growing chorus of those who feel a strong connection to this “in between” world. Borsella is one of the few, if not the only, writer at the moment addressing these particular themes of cultural identity, this “Medocentric” idea:

from “My Name is Mud”

Too bad I wasn’t aborted.

That’s what you people thought, right?

I shouldn’t be allowed to cry, to piss, to shit,

To grow up, to eat up, to throw up,

I shouldn’t have any privileges, right?

After all, my name, my very being is mud---

Unique mud, exotic mud, different mud.

This book is for those who have always felt part of, but also a bit alienated from the dominant culture in the United States--that is the white Anglo-Saxon culture. It gives voice to those who feel somewhat “different” from it, but never could quite articulate it and it is done brilliantly through hard hitting poems which are not afraid to shy away from themes that others are afraid to approach.

Most importantly, this book of poems also demonstrates that that humanity is one and that people cannot be type-cast into artificial racial boxes. There is ultimately one race---the Human Race while at the same time an exploration into “ethnic reawakening”, a tribute to a part of the world where a conglomeration of differing cultures come together and create something unique, not to mention the history of this part of the world and all the brilliance that came forth from it, whether it be Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arab, etc.

So far Borsella is the only one giving voice to these themes as far as I know. But there is a growing chorus bubbling up under the surface and hopefully this book will help inspire others to come out and be heard. This is an excellent collection of poetry, one that must be read by those in which it is a tribute to as well as those, especially those, who are unfamiliar with these themes.