Crystal-Gazing the Amber Fluid & Other Wobbly Poems

by Cortez, Eugene Nelson (introduction)

Son of a Mexican Wobbly father & a German socialist-pacifist mother, Carlos Cortez served 2 years in the federal pen at Sandstone for refusing to fight for the bosses during the Second World War, & shortly afterward joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Ever since--as poet, artist, editor & public speaker--he has been one of the union's best-known figures. This is the first collection of his poems, illustrated throughout with his powerful woodcuts & cartoons. Passionate tributes to Joe Hill & other Wobbly martyrs; lyrics protesting war & racial injustice; humorous assaults on modern technology & moving celebrations of biodiversity. All the poems of Carlos Cortez exemplify the old IWW slogan: Let's make this planet a good place to live.

Genres: Poetry

58 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Erik Graff]

Once, years ago, probably while still in high school, I heard Cortez read some of his poetry in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, back when it was still home to the Chicago Theological Seminary, when it still had apartments students and ordinary persons could afford, back when we had our own People's Park down on Halsted and the anarchist bookstore was just around the corner on Armitage. The Wobblies were still in the neighborhood too, located, as I recall, above an Armenian soup kitchen on Halsted just north of where it meets Lincoln and Fullerton.

Cortez, like Fred Thompson and many other IWWs in the area, was a friend of the local Socialist Party and of the world's oldest continuously existing socialist publishing house, Charles H. Kerr. So, too, we in the Chicago SP were friends with the Wobs.

Frankly, I didn't much like Cortez' poetry. I did, however, admire the man.

[Marco Bermudez]

A socialist Mexican Chicago-native poet who wrote about the fight for workers rights in the early 20th century, post-war America, the atomic bomb, and Indigenous peoples rights is exactly up my alley— it didn’t disappoint.

[Maria Freeman]

Picked up at the Chicago Cultural Center 2024