Dr. Luis Alberto Urrea’s audiobook
Into the Beautiful North
inspired my following lyrics:
Ode to Chava Chavarin*
And the Tres Camarones Team
by Stephany Spencer-LeBaron
Hey!
What’s in a name?
I can’t say,
But the vowels
“Chava Chavarin”
Ring in my mind today,
Though I finished
Listening to the novel yesterday.
Like music in the rain,
This sonorous name
Is motivating my muse’s
Penning poems for play!
So what’s in a name?
Seems Chava Chavarin
Is a moniker befitting
Comedians, actors,
Or boxers in a ring.
It makes me chant
“Chava Chavarin,”
Its tones that ring deeply
Within my being.
Presently Chava Chavarin‘s
Reverberating rings
Echo door chimes,
Causing Ms. Muse
To churn out more rhymes.
It’s provided me
Creative fun-time,
Like the wind chime
Swinging in my Catalina Pine,
Dinging “ting-a-ling-ling”
In tonalities sublime.
Now I hear Tia Irma,
From Urrea’s
Into the Beautiful North,
Saying “Has anybody seen
That amazing human being –
My dream, Chava Chavarin,
In whose memory
I wear this ruby ring?”
Into the beautiful north,
Of course, she was heading,
With her tantalizing team,
To find her male being.
Then haul him home
For a wedding –
Or a bedding –
Or for abetting
Her courageous daydream –
The one starring
Chava Chavarin.
‘Twas a mission befitting Nayeli,
The super-quest Queen,
And Atomiko,
Her be-knighted King.
I’m captivated
By their Quixotic scheme!
A la Don Quixote
Chasing windmills
In his dream,
They did it their way,
This visionary team!
But thank God for
Chava Chavarin!
In the end,
He saved the day.
He helped bring about
The ambitious pipedream
Of the Tres Camarones ring,
As into the beautiful north
They traveled supreme.
Even the tale’s title resounds
In my mind today,
Though I closed the book’s covers
Yesterday!
It seems,
After a good read,
The aesthetics remain
To rock the soul
And soothe the brain.
Is this an answer
To what’s in a name?
*(Chavarin = “Cha-var-EEN“)
Synopsis[edit]
The town of Tres Camarones is accosted by bandidos at a time when most of the men in the town have gone to America to look for work. After watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli, a nineteen year old girl, decides to travel to America to convince seven of the town’s best fighters to come back and fight the bandidos[3]
Nayeli and her three friends Yolo, Vampi and Tacho, begin their journey with the financial support of her aunt Tia Irma, the mayor of the town. Along the way they lose their luggage and a good deal of their money. In Tijuana, a garbage picker and skilled fighter named Atomiko helps them across the border. Once across, Nayeli seeks out the assistance of Matt, a missionary who had come to their town three years in the past and left her his phone number. They find two more warriors in a migrant worker camp.
Tia Irma takes a plane to San Diego to meet up with them, and while she continues searching for four more candidates to bring back to Mexico, Nayeli and Tacho leave for Kankakee, Illinois to look for Nayeli’s father, a former policeman. However, they find that her father has a new family, and she leaves without speaking to him. Meanwhile, Tia Irma has rounded up twenty-seven fighters.
The story ends as a boy on the roof of Nayeli’s taco shop shouts that he sees her in the distance with an army behind her.[4]
STEPHANY SPENCER-LEBARON: 