I (Heart) Babylon, Tenochtitlan, and Ysteléi

Three Places, One Heart

Babylon Street Elementary short stories

Attempting to fit his square-ness into the round of everyday life as a teacher, Tony Villalobos can’t help but misplace his heart and lose his güey in something as polyglot and cosmically mestizo as a Los Angeles elementary school. Trying to sort out all the history, poetry, and pornography that convene in a Babylon Elementary classroom takes a toll but offers a few curious cuentos.

Tenochtitlan poetry

The Mexica “spelled” Tenochtitlan as a glyph of a nopal cactus coming up out of a stone, making the name look like Mesoamerican Ikebana. With the privilege of an alphabet and the two giant flower shops of English and Spanish, composing flower-song out of the languages allows for the wild arrangement of lily words and oraciones de orquídeas.

Ysteléi Ese · East LA essay

An essay from an eastsider born on the eastside of El Éi.