Alien Lands

In "The Milkfish Gatherers," the reader is tossed into an alien land. The placeholders, the "milkfish" and "Luzon," identify the setting as the Philippines at the time of political upheaval. Readers must know a bit about Filipino history or the poem is geographically disembodying, because when the readers are tossed to Mexico with the appearance of the Sierre Madre, they wonder where they are. Spain ruled the Philippines, but it was governed from Mexico until 1872, when the fight for Filipino independence began, a fight that continues to this day. Along the way, the zest and desire for revolution has died and been resurrected many times. The poet's own extraordinary travels and involvement with Filipino history allow the poem a broad terrain over which to roam. The confusion of setting also serves as a tool for universalizing the poem. Because every land has been privy to revolution at...