Qué, qué?!Transculturación and Tato Laviera's Spanglish poetics

In this article, I begin with a brief synopsis of Laviera′s four poetry collections, followed by a detailed analysis of selected poems from all four collections in order to demonstrate how Laviera displays a unique transcultural cosmology through language. First, I discuss poems that deal with the relationships between languages and how they affect one′s identity. Next, I explore Laviera′s emphasis on the non-European roots in the transcultural process and how this emphasis reveals transculturation as a resistance strategy. Similarly, an analysis of Laviera′s stress on popular culture, orality, and music further emphasizes Laviera′s transcult-ural philosophy as a means of survival and creativity. Lastly, I describe Laviera′s homage to certain poets and declamadores, as well as his insistence upon the Nuyorican′s contribution to the formation of Puerto Rican culture. Together, these various points demonstrate how through transculturation Nuyoricans and Latinos transform their language to reflect their biculturalism, and create an entirely new code