Migration and Identity with Conrado Zepeda Pallares

By: Kaitlin O’Meara, Copy Editor

On Wednesday, March 25, the Borders and Migrations Initiative (BMI) brought poet Conrado Zepeda Pallares to Canisius to discuss his work, particularly his newest book of poems, “Pedagogía del duelo” (Bereavement’s Pedagogy). Zepeda Pallares also spoke with two classes taught by Dr. Richard Reitsma, founder of BMI, to discuss migrations and queer identities in writing and how his work touches on these themes. 

Prior to the event, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Zepeda Pallares to discuss his “writer origin story,” and learn about the path that he took to become the poet and writer he is today. During this interview, and during his talk with the wider Canisius community, he emphasized the importance and influence of his family in his writing, citing his mother as an early inspiration. He said, “My mother is a very chismosa woman, because she loves history. You know, she loves stories…And then I wanted to know how to tell stories like my mom.” Between growing up near a library, his mother and later Catholic priests at the seminary where he received some of his education, he found a value in literature and writing to capture the stories of those around him and to be able to tell them like they could. 

As a poet, Zepeda Pallares views his work as a method to “connect with yourself, definitely and to get to know yourself definitely better.” Through his poems, he explores themes of exile, migration, loss, grief and pain, and poetry allows him to explore these themes in connection to himself in a way that transcends his own experiences. He credits this most recent book of poetry – the aforementioned “Pedagogía del duelo” – as being an homage to the exiles and migrants of the world, as a way to “understand exile as a state of mind,” rather than a purely physical or psychological phenomenon. He challenged attendees to think of migration on a larger scope than what is portrayed in the media, stating another theme present in his work is, “the existential awareness of being a migrant from the moment we left our mother’s womb.” 

Zepeda Pallares discussed five poems from his book, which were originally written and published in Spanish, but had been translated into English for this presentation. He mentioned that writing in general, and many of these poems in particular, served as a way for him to help understand not only himself, but his family, ancestors and culture, stating during our conversation, “I wanted to tell my family, this is my story,” and that “I wanted my my mom and my brothers and sisters to be or to feel proud.” Similar to the earlier discussion of larger themes and inspirations for this most recent book, the poems centered around identity, history and family, and how these three ideas were so often interconnected in many ways. 

During a time where the thought and discussions of migration are considered to be a “hot topic” and one filled with many warring perspectives, Conrado Zepeda Pallares provided a more universal and humanizing perspective to remind people that at the end of the day, migration is a social phenomenon. It is a natural part of our history and identity, and is something that can be related to by many people in many ways. Migrations are not always international or large moves, as he noted, they can be on a personal level of inner change or of simply moving a neighborhood. Perspective is so essential, and it is thanks to writers like him and events like those provided by the Borders and Migrations Initiative that allow Canisius students to continue to develop and nuance their perspectives on situations like these. 

Thank you to Dr. Richard Reitsma and Conrado Zepeda Pallares for an interesting and important conversation.