poetry by jose hernandez diaz
The Skeleton Mariachis
A man in a Celso Piña shirt rode the bus from Southeast Los Angeles to The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, CA. He went on a Sunday because it’s free and he’s on an artist’s budget; he’s a singer-songwriter. The first artwork he saw at the museum was a sculpture of a local palatero. He was impressed. He posted a photo of the palatero sculpture on Instagram. Next, he saw a canvas painting of a boxing match between Oscar de la Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. from the late 90’s. He was too young to remember the actual fight, but he was almost certain everyone saw it at his Tio Trini’s house. The man in a Celso Piña shirt continued appreciating the artwork in the gallery, taking photos. It filled his Latinx heart with pride to see artwork by folks like him celebrated. The final piece he saw was a mural of a group of skeleton Mariachis. It was his favorite piece in the entire museum. He took a photo with the Chicana muralist who was in attendance. At the end of the night, he rode the bus back home to Southeast LA, where he wrote a song about his visit to M.O.L.A.A. It was called “The Skeleton Mariachis.”
The Compromise
I woke and found a shadow climbing up the walls. I looked around the room. There was no one, nothing there. I threw my pillow at the shadow. It dodged it. I threw the remote control. The control shattered and missed all at once. I got up and charged at the shadow. It disappeared. When I turned around I found it lying in my bed. I jumped on the bed and punched at the shadow with all my might. It climbed the walls again. Just as I was getting ready to throw a shoe at it, I began to wonder, the shadow isn’t hurting anyone. It doesn’t make a noise. Sure, it’s creepy, but I’ll just ignore it. I lit a cigarette and began to paint. I’ll paint a shadow, I decided, a shadow of a vase full of marigolds.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) and The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025). He has been published in The Yale Review, Poetry, Poetry Wales, The Southern Review, The London Magazine, Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, Epoch Magazine, Chicago Quarterly Review and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He teaches generative workshops for Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, The Writer's Center, and elsewhere. Additionally, he serves as a Poetry Mentor in The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.