I first met poetry listening to Nas’ Stillmatic as a ten-year-old. Though tracks like “You’re da man” and “Smokin’” scared me, I understood that the words he said were dreadfully necessary. Hip-hop became the primary way my brother and I communicated, and it provided us with a language to combat disturbing aspects of Utah’s suburban culture. Combined with the symbolism and angst I inherited as a Mormon of color, it makes sense that I found magic in language, that metaphors worked on me like keys to a lock. I pursued poetry because the slam community in Salt Lake City provided the support I craved. My involvement in slam quickly turned poetry into a lifestyle. I embraced both spoken and written word and have always enjoyed testing the limits of form. My roots in hip-hop instilled in me the conviction that I should not dumb myself down for performance and neither should I stifle the orality of my work for the page.

I want to pursue an MFA at Indiana University because I am searching for a community of writers whose work is urgent and challenging. The program’s emphasis on teaching and its studio/academic track align with my goals of teaching at a university. The program’s internship opportunities align with my goals of editing and publishing. As editor-in-chief for ellipsis… literature and art, I read a wide array of contemporary literature. ellipsis is an undergraduate-edited magazine that annually receives over 1,500 international submissions and publishes about 3% of submitted work. In class and editors’ meetings, we learned methods of evaluating literature and discussed the merit of submissions under the guidance of Natasha Sajé. My involvement in ellipsis has helped me identify my literary tastes and introduced me to top-notch journals, such as Crazyhorse and The Kenyon Review.

In my research with the McNair Scholars, Kalina Press, and Kihada Kreative, I studied and sometimes translated Latin American and Latino/a authors, such as Alfonso Kijadurías, Miguel Piñero, and Javier Zamora. I want give back to the legacy these writers have left me by focusing more on my Salvadoran heritage and family history in my writings. Raised in Harrison, New Jersey and South Jordan, Utah, I’ve lived both sides of class and cultural conflict. My family is an example of how environment affects the choices we can make. I want to write poems that reflect people like them: my primos living in Compton, CA and Jiquilisco, El Salvador. My family is full of stories that are hardly spoken about, history that threatens to disappear as my parents’ generation begins to fade. I am threatened with the possibility that if I don’t share these stories, no one will. I hope to continue this work under the mentorship of Indiana University’s faculty, especially Adrian Matejka. Matejka’s ability to penetrate themes as diverse as hip-hop and more excite me as mentors can rarely engage with those aspects of my writing. I look forward to pursuing an MFA at Indiana University. Thank you for considering me.