Le vieux jacaranda / The old jacaranda tree / Jacaranda, pohon tua!

The three language versions of Ian Campbell's poem series about the old jacaranda tree in a university coutryard presented here comprise a poem series in which he first wrote a poem in French in 1989, then an Indonesian language version which was published in the literary pages of an Indonesian newspaper (in Bandung, West Java) in 2004, and finally in English. Campbell regards this whole process as emblematic of his explorations in trilingual poetics, namely what does a 'concept'/poem idea look like if done in three of the languages with which he has some degree of written knowledge or fluency: English, French and Indonesian. This mirrors the three-pronged approach he took in an earlier edition of PORTAL - Vol. 14, No 1, April 2017, where the three language versions he wrote on a single theme were in English, Spanish, and Indonesian

The Smile of Misery

I looked at my favorite chocolate and offered it.  Lifetime hardwork was swallowed by usurpers, seeds have volatile prices, meat is out of question. Lebanese are jobless, but Syrians are subsidised.  Water is scarce,and some go to the spring to fill reservoirs if fule there is, and schools need fresh money.  Yet, few worry about finding "foi gras", but others sleep early to avoid dinner.  Winter freezes us. Torn clothes and worn shoes are burned for warmth.  When hunger creeps, luxury becones meaningless.&nbsp

Paisaje pegajoso/Sticky sororidad Crónica

This crónica is really the first time I’ve written about my childhood. As I’ve noted elsewhere, I have many black holes—up to my early teens, when things sort of snap into focus. Hi-res focus, even. Although I’ve lived in and visited a number of countries whose cuisine is imprinted in my memory and even my day-to-day practices in southern California, I decided to focus on only one place: Zapopan (Guadalajara), Jalisco, México, where I spent summers with my family as a young girl.  After informally interviewing my sister, Sarita—my closest childhood compinche (she’s only 18 months younger)—I decided to take this issue’s prompt, the notion of sticky memories/emotions, literally. Stickiness functions as a sensorial structuring motif, recurring in different ways in each of my crónica’s four vignettes. However, as is my wont, it offers no sense of resolution or closure. Rather, it appears as a floating signifier: these memories of scent, taste, feel and place have “stuck” with me throughout my life, but they evoke neither univocal nor consistent feelings. The same image or memory can feel now comforting, now disquieting, homely yet uncanny, familiar yet alien. Ultimately, it is this ecotonic, interstitial modus vivendi, which I’ve been inhabiting since about age four, that I hope to convey to the reader. &nbsp

Our Migrant Meal

Our Migrant Meal and Towards an Immigrant Haggadah is a work by Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and Sara Harris Ben Hari that seeks to give people a framework for a periodic meal ritual to hold space for their own migrant experiences and those of other people

Civic Education and Lebanon

The purpose of Civic Education in Lebanon includes the structure of the government and the way it functions.  Isn’t it civic desert?   One should consider then, the meaning of civics.  Civics does not focus on a course or a book, but rather on fundamental social learning.  It is the need to lay the foundation for communication and critical thinking when encountering traditions in conflict with what one’s own.  Yet schools have their role to play, by revealing secular values, for conflict affected areas can easily regress to violence.   A menu of civics implement classroom discussion of current critical events.  Yet, Lebanese schools are overtaken by the baccalaureate program which hardly gives any time to controversial issues.  Teachers are important elements in teaching civics.  They have to believe in what they teach, display it verbally, nonverbally and add ‘mindful learning’.  Yet, one can visualize an array of socio-personal factors when issues are controversial, knowing that humans are resistant to change.  To conclude, teaching quality in civics is to be ranked highly on the scholarly agenda and research is needed to better understand the improvement of civic education

One Could Not Have Survived Communism Without a Grandmother

This reflection centers on the author’s grandmother’s cookbook as a catalyst for interrogating the incomplete memories of growing up in Romania in the 1980s during the ‘golden decade’ of Communism. During these times, oppressive policies restricted people’s access to food and punished those who tried to eat outside the scope of the regime. Yet, through my grandmother’s cooking of dishes such as sauteed stinging nettles, which is the focus of this reflection, my memories of that decade are of delicious, tasty, and nutritious meals, the best she ever ate. The reflection asks difficult questions around pleasure during oppressive times, as well as about the impossibility of recreating such a dish outside of its own history

Sweet Grief

Sweet Grief is an autobiographical, experimental and fragmented account of the writer’s final months with her father. The narrative is centred around a shared food ritual—eating millefeuille—which becomes almost impossible after her father experiences a stroke. The piece is anchored by the human need to swallow. It draws together food, family, memory, grief, love, a global pandemic and the impact of bureaucratic decision-making. This reflection is multi-layered, like the millefeuille. Her father’s stroke occurred during the COVID pandemic when Western Australia effectively closed its border for 697 days, requiring the author to quarantine, twice. It explores the ‘messy’ emotions around food when a loved one must learn to swallow again and portrays the way in which food plays a ‘sticky’ role in familial relationships

A Sandakan Childhood

This narrative is on recalling foods enjoyed in my childhood in Sandakan, a town in the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo island. It is more stream of consciousness than reflective, more descriptive than analytical. In recollecting my memories of foods eaten in years gone I realise it is not an exercise in isolation. When we consume food it is not merely for sustenance as our food practises are invariably intertwined with a whole lot of experiences, rituals and habits of old. The act of remembering favourite or comfort foods can set off triggers of feelings and emotions long past. My family, like most Chinese families of the time, express their love for each other through food. It is through food that I acknowledge the caring family environment that our parents created for us

Spanish

The study of cross-cutting characters in Roberto Bolaño's narrative becomes essential when examining the existing critical bibliography on the Chilean author. Many analyses focus on individual characters or specific works, overlooking the cohesive nature of Bolaño's fictional universe. This article aims to present a comprehensive history of the interconnected characters in Bolaño's texts, exploring their evolution and the interplay between the plots of his stories and novels. By examining the complete range of recurring characters, the article uncovers multiple cross-cutting character arcs that span across several of Bolaño's works. While Bolaño's recognition grew after receiving the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1998, academic interest in his works further intensified with subsequent publications, including monographs, theses, and critical studies. Notable contributions include works that extensively analyse various aspects of Bolaño's writing but fall short of a comprehensive study of his cross-cutting characters. This article fills that gap by exploring the appearances and transformations of characters such as Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, examining instances of character rewriting, and delving into the portrayal of characters in different works. By offering a holistic and intertextual understanding of Bolaño's narrative, this study contributes to the critical analysis of his literary oeuvre.The study of cross-cutting characters in Roberto Bolaño's narrative becomes essential when examining the existing critical bibliography on the Chilean author. Many analyses focus on individual characters or specific works, overlooking the cohesive nature of Bolaño's fictional universe. This article aims to present a comprehensive history of the interconnected characters in Bolaño's texts, exploring their evolution and the interplay between the plots of his stories and novels. By examining the complete range of recurring characters, the article uncovers multiple cross-cutting character arcs that span across several of Bolaño's works. While Bolaño's recognition grew after receiving the Rómulo Gallegos Prize in 1998, academic interest in his works further intensified with subsequent publications, including monographs, theses, and critical studies. Notable contributions include works that extensively analyse various aspects of Bolaño's writing but fall short of a comprehensive study of his cross-cutting characters. This article fills that gap by exploring the appearances and transformations of characters such as Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, examining instances of character rewriting, and delving into the portrayal of characters in different works. By offering a holistic and intertextual understanding of Bolaño's narrative, this study contributes to the critical analysis of his literary oeuvre

Memory in Motion

Memory in Motion illustrates the ways that replicating a now-lost culinary practice achieves stickiness through the affective transfer of ideas and experiences for visitors in history museums. It explores how embodied re-enactment both preserves and creates memories, while instilling senses of social value, currency and meaning in the museum, and in heritage more broadly. The work also considers museums, particularly house museums, recipes, and in this instance—sponge cake—as sites of memory and nostalgia, and their contemporary relevance. By interweaving resonant fragments of the museum’s collection and family (hi)stories with a performative activity embedded in memory and motion, we see the development of stickiness through a relational assemblage framework centred around emotional connections to food in the past and in the present, with a view to the future.with a view to the future