Today marks a significant milestone in the journey of Rising and Gliding, and I’m excited to share it with all of you. From the beginning, I have wanted Rising and Gliding to be about more than just one person's story — I envisioned space where disabled creators, especially those early in their careers, could showcase their talents and connect with a supportive community.
When I met Cristina Cortez at the Paul W. Spooner Generational Leaders Summit, I knew she would be the first creator to appear as a collaborator on Rising and Gliding. Cristina is a poet, a force of knowledge, and her background in literature and poetry means we get along famously! Below, I’ve shared poems from her volume As I Am / Soy Como Soy, as well as our interview. I hope you enjoy Cristina’s poetry!
“As a poet who happens to have a disability, I am as I am. My disability is an integral part of how i show up in the world. I use a power wheelchair. I can’t change who or what i am. Nor would I want to.”
ERIN: Hi Cristina! Can you discuss what drew you to poetry as your medium of expression? Favorite poets, etc?
CRISTINA: In 2nd grade, as the only kid with a disability and wheelchair user, I was having trouble reading. When reading in class, my eyes would often jump around and skip lines, and I would frequently lose my place as a result. In addition, I had trouble handling physical books and turning pages, so reading was challenging. Because reading was hard, I had to use blown-up Xerox page. This solution of using large print text made reading doable but unenjoyable.
Fast forward to fifth grade, I left formal education and went into homeschooling.
Going on this new path, my parents and I became part of a home-based program called The Intensive Treatment Program (ITP) from The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The program is founded on the precept that “the brain has enormous potential and that this potential could be fully realized, giving brain-injured children a chance to be whatever they wanted to be and to be and achieve the highest level of excellence they can,” as said on the website.
The intellectual component of the program consisted of presenting me with all school subjects at a level higher than my grade level. This meant that since I was at the age for middle school, I had to learn at the high school level. No testing was required. I was just learning and not attempting to retain information to demonstrate my comprehension and competency.
Under the guidance of this approach, i learned material using methods that emphasized accessibility enter; audiobooks. I heard texts rather than looked at them. Reading was the same as inhaling air and writing as exhaling the air I had taken in. Gone were the tethers of the physical world, and I entered into the world of the mind.
Reading classical literature transported me, and I felt compelled to write in response.
The line-based form of poetry allows focus on thoughts rather than the narrative of prose. I've found a powerful voice as a means of empowerment and self-definition.
favorite poets include: William Blake, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, William Butler Yeats, Federico García Lorca, Seamus Heaney, Maya Angelou, Jack Kerouac, Gabriela Mistral, Langston Hughes, and Audre Lorde.
ERIN: That’s an amazing list, and we share many favorites. What do you hope readers will take away from this volume, Soy Como Soy (As I Am)?
CRISTINA: I hope that readers pick up As I Am find themselves reflected in its pages. The poems in As I Am carve out a space for myself and the reader to be ourselves. They tell a story of transformation—breaking the mold of the labels placed on all of us by society to define ourselves on our own terms, showcasing the vibrant capabilities of mind. My poetry challenges societal perceptions of disability, advocating for a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of what it means to be an individual.
ERIN: Can you tell our readers a bit about the first two poems?
CRISTINA: The opening poems of As I Am “I Am” and “2000:” center on my experience of having a disability from birth. Cerebral palsy is the only form of paralysis that affects children. As such, it is part of my life experience from the beginning.
“I Am” intentionally mentions the sparse clinical details of my birth not to dramatize it, but to stress that in spite of its circumstances, life is worth living. I know no other life other than the one that I live with a disability. Also the poem stresses the process of coming to life, to honor my parents’ choice to have me. They wanted a 2nd child for 15 years, and they wanted me regardless of my later diagnosed disability. Rather than reject the disability, they rejected the professional opinion about it; that I would amount to nothing. They embarrassed my disability as part of who i was and am.
As for “2000:” it focuses on the social challenges of having a disability in school. In the poem the learning process is shown to be difficult at first, but as soon as I was introduced to technology, it became easier to navigate school and life.
Both poems are united by themes of resilience, identity formation, and the role of technology and support in overcoming physical limitations. The detailed, personal recounting invites readers to empathize with the speaker's journey, celebrating the victories, big and small, that define our individual paths to self-discovery and independence.
ERIN: What’s your favorite Poem in As I Am? Why?
CRISTINA: That’s a tough one. All of them are good. They all do what they are meant to, but if I had to pick, my favorite would be “Rise.” It came out of a dream, and it is about dealing with one’s internal struggles and overcoming them. Anyone can come to that poem and use it to push themselves forward through whatever they are dealing with.
ERIN: Can you talk a bit about what barriers you face as a disabled poet?
CRISTINA: The difficulty of being a disabled poet isn’t either of the two. It is rather being perceived as disabled in the first place. I am a poet regardless of whether i have a disability or not. The same goes for anyone. You are who you are, no matter what. But to those who have a disability, I say you are STILL you.
As a poet who happens to have a disability, I am as I am. My disability is an integral part of how i show up in the world. I use a power wheelchair. I can’t change who or what i am. Nor would I want to. If anything, the hardest part of being a poet with a disability is dealing with inaccessibility. But whether a location is accessible or not, the show must go on.
ERIN: Thank you so much Cristina! Where can people find your work?
On instagram @cristinacortezwrites and my website!
Cristina Cortez: cristinacortezauthor.com. Purchase Cristina’s Poetry Here
Erin Ryan Heyneman (she/they) is a disabled educator, creator, and speaker. She is also a Commissioner on her city’s Commission on Disability. Find the rest of her work here.
Thank you both for this!