Guest Reviewer: Veronica X Valadez Reviews City On the Second Floor

Tezcatlipoca's Mirror Sees and Shows Floricanto 

Veronica X Valadez 

Matt Sedillo’s City on the Second Floor holds a mirror in front of all of us revealing not what we want to see, but what we need to see. This smoking mirror, otherwise known as “Tezcatlipoca” to Chicanas and Chicanos, is the mirror our ancestors left us with so that we may critically analyze who we are, and who we need to become. This is the mirror that Sedillo’s flor y canto gifts us. What is it that we choose to ignore? What is it that we try to cover up with illusions? What is it that we are willing to speak to, and to resist against? 

 

Matt Sedillo sheds light on reality as he poetically paints images of poverty, racism, classism, war, environmental destruction, greed, privilege, generational wealth, imperialism, injustice, and the selling of our very souls as we pursue a life of consumerism that dehumanizes us and pollutes our minds, bodies, spirits, and the entire world. This book of poetry delivers a sense of urgency, and wake-up call to the proletariat to see the truth for what it is and to resist! Resist against the false democracy and illusion of freedom that keeps us too busy and too blind to see what is happening right in front of us. It is a reminder that the rich and their relentless greed are leading us to the mass destruction of our humanity and of our planet. 

 

There are so many issues that we face as a society, and oftentimes it is difficult to face them because it can all be very overwhelming, but Sedillo’s creative way of speaking truth to power through poetry allows us to look at these injustices straight in the face, one poem at a time. It allows us to better understand how systems of oppression work seamlessly through a complex yet simple web of networks, all of which continue to feed the rich and starve the poor. Sedillo unapologetically sticks a finger in the face of government bailouts that allow the rich to “reach for the stars” even if their companies are in the red, leaving the proletariat to pay for it, making the rest of us carry the burden of dept that only gets heavier with time. A dark reminder that, if we’re not careful, we can easily end up living our lives consumed by consumerism, making the rich richer with what should be an inheritance for our own families. 

 

Sedillo gives the reader a clear picture of what it’s like to live in Los Angeles, from seeing “NO ICE” signs on the freeway bridges to homelessness, to braceros, to the multitude of many other laborers, to cities burning from uprisings against police brutality, to high-rises of the rich, to the cultural richness and resistance of the city. Sedillo’s poetry reminds us not to waste our lives working just to die. It reminds us to bring attention to the economic and environmental injustice we see and experience all around us. It reminds us to recognize and call out global imperialism and the false justification of wars just to make a profit. It warns us of the possibility of allowing our dreams to be eaten up by the economy if we’re not paying attention. 

 

As an Indigenous Xicana, I appreciate Sedillo pointing out that Brown people are native to this continent and that we have migrated throughout Anahuac for generations just as the Monarch butterflies have. He builds on our shared ancestral knowledge to bring us back home, where we can reclaim our humanity and our dignity. And in Matt Sedillo’s prolific words, I leave you with this, “May you speak with courage and conviction. May you dream of extraordinary things and may your every breath forward the revolution”. 

About the Reviewer:

 

Veronica X. Valadez – Xicana scholar-activist, artist, danzante, educator, Ethnic Studies advocate, Chicana/o Studies professor, and co-founder & president of Ehecatl Wind Philosophy