Celebrated local poet Daniel Chacon thrilled the Fresno City College audience who attended his reading from “Hotel Juarez” on May 1 in Room 251 of the Old Administration Building. Though Chacon is currently an instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso, he came back to Fresno to read stories that were inspired by or set in Fresno.

Opening for Chacon was Michael Medrano, instructor of English.  Medrano read two selections from his iPhone.  He explained that he did not know he would performing that evening.

From his first selection, “The Man Who Hated Endings,” Medrano read a section that described a man who never finished whatever he read because “he lusted for the fever of the read.”

“The moral of the story,” Medrano said of his work, “is to finish what you read.”

The other work that Medrano read was “I Am the Substitute Teacher.”

After Medrano’s reading, FCC English instructor Kenneth Chacon introduced his brother.

Kenneth chose two different introductions. The first introduction was the standard introduction of who the reader was, the awards he had won and all of his accomplishments thus far. The second introduction was more heartfelt and revealed the bond the two brothers shared.

“I think my brother is a genius,” said Ken Chacon. “I think he is an artist in the truest sense of the word.”

Then, he brought his brother Daniel up to read. In a discussion before he started, Daniel Chacon discussed his way of life and how his work influences the motion of his daily actions.

“I strive to live a life that is non-fragmented,” Chacon said. “I strive to live my life the way I live my art.”

Daniel Chacon also discussed the cover photo on his book, “Hotel Juarez.” In the photo, there is the hotel in Juarez, but he makes note of the sandbags at the forefront of the picture. He explained to his audience that behind those sandbags was a soldier with a gun whose only job was to watch the streets throughout the day.

“You think Fresno is bad,” Chacon said. “In Juarez, even the police are afraid.”

In his selected readings, Chacon’s voice flowed melodically over the words and the paragraphs of each page. From a selection called “Bird,” he read a line that seemed to echo his opinion of books.

“‘Sometimes a book can find you, seek you out,’” read Chacon.

From the same selection and through a female character, Chacon says, “every paragraph is like a room or hallway in the same house.”

This section was particularly interesting because the female character was reading different passages from different books at the same time. She marveled at the way each paragraph from each book seemed to be a continuation from the last.

Chacon echoes his characters’ marvel to his audience, stating that like most events in life, a lot of his stories are connected in some way or another. It is, according to Chacon, in the multiverse of writing that this happens. The true marvel is not in the stories flowing smoothly together but the fact that due to this multiverse possibility, any story is true somewhere.

Chacon said, “Any story we create really does exist somewhere.”