Research: Breaking Down Language

With Eduardo Corral's work, we must work hard to understand its code-switching and its allusions to other artists if we want to get a fuller understanding of his poetry and its contributions.

One of the central poems of the collection is "Variations On A Them By Jose Montoya," which is actually smack-dab in the middle of the book! We must learn to read Corral's work using this poem's various forms as research challenge:

• switching language
• allusion to another artist  (Jose Montoya)
• Italicized lines--where do they come from? 
• outside sources used
• section breaks and different stanza forms
• the poems repetition of the opening stanza

Looking the poem up, one can find this review of Corral's work: "Our Man In New York:..."

• From this article, Munoz uncovers more about Montoya. Therefore, to get the reference, one must look up this Jose Montoya and his work, too. That leads to an essay on Montoya: "By the People and For the People"