This glossary evolved out of a writing activity in our Chicanx Literature class (CLS 4020) at California State University, Los Angeles in the spring of 2021. The assignment was to celebrate the mighty lengua and produce vignettes about cultural expressions we grew up with. The entries that follow are short excerpts from longer vignettes.

CPAL (AKA Covid-19 Temporary Paid Administrative Leave) lived a very brief tumultuous life in the California State University system. Full of promise and unfulfilled potential, CPAL came into existence as an emergency relief program in the spring of 2020.

Fellow Americans, in light of the deadly virus that is currently plaguing the world and so viciously attacking our beloved American economy, I offer this simple and Swift* modest proposal: Human Sacrifice.

There are no children’s books in your house growing up. No dictionaries. No encyclopedias. Not even a Bible to skim through. Your main reading material consists of Catholic leaflets given out at Sunday Mass. You fight your siblings for Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, and Cocoa Puffs; it’s not the sugary cereals you want but the writing on the back of the colorful boxes. Words are scarce, and you’re starving.

The following is a Communal Interview organized by Olga García: Questions from different folks for our Estimado Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.

Soy mujer de guerra. Eso me lo dijo mi abuela a los seis años y desde entonces ando matando cucarachas. Cuando uno se dedica a combatir la invasión cucarachagüense, uno entiende que es un compromiso serio, de toda la vida.