When There Were Ghosts

“When There Were Ghosts” by Alberto Ríos was originally published in 2014 on the Academy of American Poets web publication Poem-a-Day. In 2015, it was included in Ríos’s poetry collection A Small Story About the Sky. This book is a somewhat recent addition to his canon. His first book of poetry, Elk Heads on the Wall, was published in 1979. A Small Story About the Sky is his 11th book of poetry.

“When There Were Ghosts” is a tableau of a set of experiences watching movies in Mexico in the 1950s and ‘60s. The movie theater patrons’ cigarette smoke affects the projection, creating a double, blurred image, or ghost. The ghost is an element of magical realism and hauntology (see: Background). The poem’s themes are Blurred Identity and Living in Borderlands. It also connects Movies, Music, and Poetry.

Poet Biography

Alberto Alvaro Ríos was born in Nogales, Arizona, in 1952. The town borders Nogales, Mexico, and Ríos’s parents spoke Spanish in their home. Ríos learned English in school and, from the combination of these two languages, he developed his own third language for poetry and prose. His writing draws heavily on his Chicano heritage.

He attended the University of Arizona, obtaining a BA there in 1974 and an MFA in 1979. In 1982, he began teaching at Arizona State University (ASU). Ríos became a Regents Professor there in 1994. In 2017, he became the Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. Ríos is also the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English at ASU. He has been the host of Books & Co. on Arizona’s PBS station for over 20 years.

In addition to his 12 books of poetry, Ríos has published three collections of short stories and one memoir. His poetry and prose has been included in hundreds of anthologies and journals. In 1989, Ríos was featured in the documentary film Birthwrite: Growing Up Hispanic. James DeMars set Ríos’s poetry to music in “Toto’s Say” and “Away from Home.” Ríos’s work has also been adapted to dance and translated internationally.

Ríos’s work has won various awards including the Walt Whitman Award, the Western States Book Award, multiple Pushcart Prizes, the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award. He has also been awarded fellowships by the National Endowments for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ríos became the first state poet laureate of Arizona in 2013. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2014 to 2020.

Poem Text

Ríos, Alberto Alvaro. “When There Were Ghosts.” 2014. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

“When There Were Ghosts” comprises 24 lines broken into 12 stanzas of two lines (couplets). The poem is about the Mexican town called Nogales, which is just across the border from the Arizona town of the same name.

In the first stanza, the speaker (who is clearly the poet himself) sets the scene: the movie theaters all over the Mexican town in the 1950s and ‘60s.

In the second stanza, the speaker recalls how there were no laws against smoking in theaters during these years and for many years after.

In the third stanza, the speaker describes how both the movie screen and the air of the theater capture the images from the movie projector.

The fourth stanza continues this description, clarifying that it is the cigarette smoke that catches the projected images in the air.

In the fifth stanza, the speaker describes how, in this way, the smoke doubled the scenes of movies. He calls the doubles of the movie’s characters—the ones projected into the smoke—ghosts.

In the sixth stanza, the speaker notes how he and other audience members could see the projected and doubled images as a kind of preview of the upcoming action. The smoke is like the movie’s dream.

The seventh stanza continues the image of the movie’s dream. It dreams itself. Being in the smoke with the projection makes the audience feel like they are in the movie. This makes them participants instead of just voyeurs.

In the eighth stanza, the speaker describes how the smoke bends the images of the movie stars. This obscures their features a bit.

The ninth stanza continues the description of the actors’ faces. The smoke’s distortion makes Mexican stars like María Félix and Pedro Armendáriz look similar to the speaker’s relatives—an aunt and an uncle.

In the 10th stanza, the speaker includes his relatives as part of the blended movie and audience. Then he recalls other sensory details from the movie theater, such as holding popcorn.

The 11th stanza continues the list of sensory details, repeating the feel of the smoke, as well as gum on the movie theater floor. The speaker visits the movie theater on Saturday nights, feeling as one with the audience and his family.

The final stanza develops the image of the blended audience, which makes the speaker and the other people a part of the plot of the movie, its scenery, and stars. They feel like they are living out dreams in the dancing projected images.