Book Review
Madre, Hablanos de la Guerra (Mother, Speak To Us of War)
This Jewish-Latina-Chilean-American author has turned out a zinger of a collection that will raise eyebrows in some areas, gratitude in others, and ire among the perpetrators of the outrages she documents in these bitter poems. Sparse...
Book Review
Natural Selection
Any poem whose significance resides only in its “meaning” will suffer from a widely unrecognized, and even less widely acknowledged, truth. The same facts, both emotional and experiential, might have been shared in an infinite number...
Book Review
Lost Gold of the Republic
On October 25, 1865, the ocean bottom a hundred miles off the coast of Georgia received a tribute of $400,000 in gold and silver coins, many of them $10 and $20 eagles and double eagles. Ironically, the coins were on their way home to...
Book Review
Migraciones
A discussion between the poet and her translator at the back of the book offers a much-enhanced access to the sometimes difficult passages in this long poem. Their conversation makes it clear that this Russian-Jewish-Mexican woman knew...
Book Review
Poemas para Josefina
A Jewish family, having learned over generations to call Chile home and Spanish a beloved language, is ruptured by political turmoil. Some are forced into exile, but one woman adamantly stays in Chile to build a life out of her own...
Book Review
Un Viaje a Salto (A Trip To Salto)
In 1972, in Montivideo, Uruguay, a young mother and her physician husband are roughly awakened by soldiers at three in the morning. The father is dragged away, and the mother is left to attend to her child. The baby will grow through her...
Book Review
Los versos del Capitn
For the contemporary reader, this book will perhaps be redolent of the film Il Postino (The Postman), which was set on the Isle of Capri, where the poet lived in exile with his lover, Matilde Urrutia, later his wife. The poems were...
Book Review
Cantos de Adolescencia (Songs of Youth)
Born of Mexican heritage in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, this self-proclaimed “Pocho” poet began his career by winning every literary contest available in his area. Since school only offered studies in English, his first...