D.C. Poet Carlos Parada Ayala is the Talented Teacher We All Need in Our Lives
A typical week in Salvadoran poet Carlos Parada Ayala’s life consists of teaching, reading, enjoying food at Marx Cafe, practicing capoeira, riding his bike, enjoying chats with his colleagues, and of course, writing poetry. He enjoys talking with his students and teaching through music. “One of my great satisfactions is to promote creative writing among my students. This year, we studied the history of hip-hop and its verbal expression: rap. My students have written bilingual rap and rap in Spanish, simply sensational,” he says.
In the parallel world we live in, a.k.a. the pandemic, Parada Ayala hasn’t stopped dedicating time to his students. He reads Young Adult books so he can recommend novels to them. The poet has kept his habits of biking and practicing capoeira, and frequently cooks, which he loves. Regarding his poetry, the Washington-D.C.-based writer has been reading nonstop. “I have a vast library that I have built over the years. At the moment, I’m reading the work of Spanish poet Pedro Salinas.”
Currently, Parada Ayala is working on a new poetry collection. His first book, La luz de la tormenta/The Light of the Storm was published by Zozobra Publishing in 2013. He was also the co-editor of two anthologies: Al pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas hispanos de Washington, D.C. (North American Academy of the Spanish Language, 2010) and Knocking at the Doors of the White House: Latina and Latino poets in Washington, D.C. (Zozobra Publishing, 2017).
His poetry life goes back to his college days when he developed his love for literature. He took some detours away from his artistic calling. However, years later, he developed his poetry when he was the cultural organizer and director of ParaEsoLaPalabra, a group of writers, artists, and activists. He worked intensively on his poetry and this led him to win the Larry Neal Award from the D.C. Commission on the Arts with poems written in English. “That was the moment when I started to feel like a poet,” he says. His work focused on the experiences of the wars in Central America and undocumented workers’ immigration.
Parada Ayala is a fierce and active community member. Besides being a founding member of ParaEsoLaPalabra, he was a member of the Late Night Hour poetry collective “Alta hora de la noche,” was a featured reader at the International Gathering of Poets in El Salvador, the Latin American Poetry Festival in N.Y., and Teatro de la Luna’s Poetry Marathon in D.C. The poet was also included in the podcast series “The Poet and The Poem at the Library of Congress.”
We recently chatted with him as part of the series “Salvi Artists in the U.S.” In this interview, Parada Ayala shares his journey as a poet, his connection with El Salvador, inspirations, and writing tips.
You can follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook. You can read his work here: Ablucionistas, Poetas Siglo XXI, Antología Mundial, Split This Rock, and Beltway Poetry.
Tell us about yourself. Where were you born? How long have you lived in the U.S.?
I was born in El Salvador, in the town of San Juan Opico, Departamento de La Libertad. I have lived in the United States for 51 years. My parents immigrated first, and soon after, they brought my brother and me to the United States. I was thirteen years old. My sister was born in the US. I spent my entire adolescence in East Los Angeles and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School. Immediately afterward, I pursued my undergraduate studies at Amherst College, from which I graduated in 1980. I earned a bachelor’s degree in Latin American, Spanish, and Brazilian literature. In 2016 I finished a master’s degree in education online from Moreland University.
Where do you live now? How long have you been living there?
I live in Washington, D.C., in the Brookland neighborhood. I have been living in this city for the last 34 years. As an immigrant, I didn’t have a lot of resources, only my education. During the first years of the war in El Salvador, I dedicated myself to international work advocating for human rights with non-governmental organizations at the United Nations in New York and Geneva.
After I finished working in New York, I switched my professional career, and I trained in systems analysis and computer science. I worked for 28 years in that profession. In the last 20 years of my technology career, I was the director of information systems in various professional organizations.
Do you remember when you discovered and/or accepted that you wanted to be a writer? What was your inspiration?
I discovered I liked literature when I was at Amherst College. I learned and loved literature from Latin America, Spain, Brazil, and the United States. There, I wrote some poems and stories that I never dared to publish because I did not feel ready. When I graduated, the war in El Salvador began, and I changed my path. The need to work in something that would allow me to earn a living and support my family prevented me from dedicating myself to literature. However, I kept reading. Twenty years passed until I managed to stabilize myself financially.
In 2003, a group of friends — writers, artists, and activists– and I decided to found a literary group called ParaEsoLaPalabra as an act of protest and artistic redemption against the United States’ invasion in Iraq. The group became a formal non-profit organization. Its purpose was to promote literature, arts, and music developed in the Washington, D.C. area in the Spanish-speaking communities. Our readings, visual arts exhibits, performances, and small music concerts were mostly held at the Haskell Center of the Folger Shakespeare Library. I was the executive director of ParaEsoLaPalabra for several years. During those years, I developed my poetry. I read César Vallejo, Roque Dalton García, Claribel Alegría, and Chicano and Nuyorican poetry, to name a few. I also listened to the music of the Nueva Canción or Latin American Trova.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your anthologies?
Al pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas hispanos de Washington, D.C. (North American Academy of the Spanish Language, 2010) was presented at the Library of Congress to celebrate 400 years of poetry written in Spanish in the United States. This anthology includes 24 poets, men and women, who mostly write in Spanish in the Washington, D.C. area. I co-edited it with the Argentine poet Luis Alberto Ambroggio. This is the first anthology of Latinx poets published in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
The second anthology Knocking at the Doors of the White House: Latina and Latino poets in Washington, D.C. (Zozobra Publishing, 2017) is bilingual, and I co-edited it with Luis Alberto Ambroggio and José Ballesteros. The translation editors were Deborah Sobeloff and Burgi Zenhaeusern. It is the first Latinx bilingual anthology published in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Who helped you in your journey as an artist/writer? Who were your mentors and/or idols?
The people who channeled me to poetry were two of my great friends: Arturo Salcedo Martínez, an educational video producer and excellent Colombian writer and connoisseur of literature; and Carole Juárez, an art, book, and cultural executive of mixed Bolivian and Mexican descent. I dedicate my first poetry book to them.
What is your favorite artistic achievement?
Among my greatest literary achievements are the publications of the three books mentioned earlier. However, it was a sublime experience to have been invited to the Teatro de la Luna Poetry Marathon in 2016 and be included in the anthology: Puesto ya el pie en el estribo, edited by the Dominican poet Rei Berroa. This recital included the participation of endearing poets. It was a beautiful experience to have read alongside the Salvadoran poet and novelist Manlio Argueta, who, over the years, has been one of the writers I admire the most in El Salvador.
Also, four years ago, I earned a master’s degree in education and have been a teacher ever since. I teach Spanish Language Arts classes to teenagers at Sacred Heart Bilingual School in DC.
What is your relationship with El Salvador now?
I have an endearing and close relationship with El Salvador through my mother, family, and friends. I spent many years without visiting the country during the years of the civil war. However, since I started writing poetry in the early 2000s, I began to interact with poets and writers from El Salvador. I think I travel an average of once every two years to El Salvador and more when it is possible. I owe a lot to the Salvadoran poets I have met and read. Some have promoted my work and invited me to poetry recitals in El Salvador. The poet Otoniel Guevara invited me twice to participate in the International Poetry Festival: El turno del ofendido. The poet and anthologist Vladimir Amaya has included me in two important anthologies published in El Salvador.
What kind of Salvadoran poetry do you read?
I am very interested in the new poetry that has emerged in the post-war in El Salvador. I have read with great interest the work of poets such as Roxana Méndez, Susana Reyes, Krisma Mancía, Jorge Galán, Otoniel Guevara, Vladimir Amaya, and many other poets who have written amazing poetic work. Some of the poets mentioned have been part of literary collectives that have done a lot to promote post-war poetry in El Salvador.
When I go to El Salvador, a mandatory stop is the “Miércoles de poesía” event on Wednesday nights at the Los tacos de Paco restaurant. The programming is constant, and there, you can appreciate the best of the new and not so new poetry of El Salvador.
Who are your favorite Salvadoran artists, writers, poets, and/or musicians?
Regarding novels, I read everything I can get my hands on written by Manlio Argueta from the so-called “Generación comprometida.” In the post-war narrative, the work of the “Generation of Cynicism” — a group of writers who write in surprising prose about sordidness, violence, and social deterioration — stands out. From this generation, I have read novels and short stories by Horacio Castellanos Moya, Rafael Menjívar Ochoa, and Jacinta Escudos. I also read the work of Salvi writers in the US who write in English, such as Javier Zamora, Quique Avilés, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Leticia Hernández Linares, William Archila, and others. The work of Mario Bencastro, who has lived in the US since the early 80s and continues to write in Spanish is essential. His novel, La mansión del olvido and his bilingual poetry book, Waves of the East River are must-reads. Chicano and Nuyorican literatures have also been important influences in my writing and my understanding of the Latinx experience in the US.
In the arts, and back to El Salvador, I am drawn to the work of Benjamín Cañas, Salarrué, and more recently, I have been amazed by the work of Renacho Melgar. The fact of not living in El Salvador, I confess, averts me from exploring and learning more about the artistic, musical, and theatrical production in El Salvador.
Do you feel “Salvadoran”?
For me, the issue of identity is often contextual. In El Salvador or with my family in Los Angeles, I feel Salvadoran. In Washington, D.C., I fluctuate between feeling Salvadoran and Latinx. At poetry festivals in other countries, I feel international, without denying my roots, of course, and while recognizing that most of my life I’ve lived in the US.
What is your favorite thing about your literary/artistic community?
What fascinates me the most about my literary community is the human quality of the people I have met. I think poetry is worth very little without the human quality of poets. Right now, the international group “Los ablucionistas” based in Mexico has adopted me. They are colleagues from many countries who take poetry seriously. I love to share my latest poems with them. In that forum, I can determine if a poem connects with the listeners/readers or not. The Ablucionisas, in turn, enrich my experience with their own poetry creations.
If you could share one or two writing tips, what would they be?
First, I recommend that you read poetry. At least a couple of poems a day. However, it is not only necessary to read but study poetry, its many forms, structures, and expressions. Second, to see poetry as a profession. I find that poetry has myriad techniques that can be studied in a manner similar to the way professional artists and musicians develop their craft. And finally, review your work. Read it out loud. Let it rest a few days. Come back to it. Revise it one more time. Then, take the plunge and share it.
Read more of his poetry here:
These articles discuss the writer’s work as a teacher and the literary and learning experiences he designs with the Sacred Heart Bilingual School faculty:
-Profesores de escuela católica Sagrado Corazón se capacitan
-Expressing History Through Art: Mario Bencastro During Teach Central America Week
-Un Tren Llamado Esperanza: Mario Bencastro Visits Sacred Heart School with a Message About Hope
