Hills Brother's Coffee - Luci Tapahonso

Luci Tapahonso was born on November 8^th, 1953 in Shiprock New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation. According to a biography piece, Tapahonso is one who still considers Shiprock to be home though she spends time away from the reservation. In much of her writing, Tapahonso finds difficulty, “Separating [herself] from the place, [her] home, [her] land, and [her] people…[because] the place of [her] birth is the source of the writing.” (Native American Poet)

“Hills Brother's Coffee,” a poem by Luci Tapahonso, tells the story of her and her uncle sitting one morning together sipping on a cup of coffee. Through this story, oral tradition is used to emphasize the memory Tapahonso holds with her uncle and thier bond of sipping coffee. The specific type of coffee is called Hills Brother’s Coffee which, "[is] the coffee with the man in a dress, like church man." In this phrase, Tapahonso is symbolizing one element to this coffee that her uncle and her are drinking, being that it has characteristics to be similar to a churchman. By elaborating on the man looking like the churchman, there's a comparison to her experience with her culture's appropriation towards Western culture. Also, within the setting, Tapahonso is identifying with her home; being one referred source of her writing. Through this, Tapahonso allows the audience to experience her empathy of her home setting.

In the video link below, Tapahanso reads her poem aloud and describes how her uncle had many ways to describe his experience drinking the coffee; yet in English, the only translation came to be very, very, very good. She also describes that Hills Brother's Coffee in Navajo can also be translated to “The Catholic's Coffee” (Tapahonso). Therefore overlying the theme being how Native American language has been slowly been overturned to be translated blandly in English. Overall, Tapahanso is making efforts to reform Navajo language in her pieces because English language has scarce ability to do justice for Navajo language; and also because "it's time for other people to learn our language" (Tapahonso). Therefore drawing on another way to reinforce the oral tradition and language of American Indian Culture.   

Works Cited:

Dailymotion, 05 Apr. 2009. www.dailymotion.com/video/x8w3nz_luci-tapahonso-hills-brothers-coffe_news. 20 Feb. 2017.

Hills Brother's Coffee. 2014. The U.S. [Coffee] Industry Survives the War.

"Luci Tapahonso: Native American Poet." Luci Tapahonso: Native American Poet. http://nativeamerican-authors.com/tapahonso.html. 20 Feb. 2017.