La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge
Author | : Alicia Gaspar de Alba |
Publisher | : Arte Publico Press |
Total Pages | : 132 |
Release | : 2003-09-30 |
ISBN-10 | : 1611921961 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781611921960 |
Rating | : 4/5 (61 Downloads) |
Download or read book La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge written by Alicia Gaspar de Alba and published by Arte Publico Press. This book was released on 2003-09-30 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of poetry and essays, Gaspar de Alba incorporates the Mexican archetypal wailing woman who wanders in search of her lost children. La Llorona is more than an archetype: she is a tour guide through the ruins of love and family and the constant presence of the poet's voice. She transcends time, place, and gender. The lines of the poems breathe that haunted spirit as they describe her movidas, both geographic and figurative, in search of the lost mother, the absent father, the abandoned child, the lover, the self. These essays track other movements of thought: reflections on identity, sexuality, and resistance. As a leading interpreter of border life and culture, poet, storyteller, and essayist Gaspar de Alba explores the borders and limits of place, body, and language through a painful series of moves and losses. She prevails and becomes the forger of her own destiny, her own image on the landscape, the interpreter of her own dreams and history. These vibrant poems and essays of self-creation, even to the basic task of choosing her own name, are a testament to the phoenix-like quality of art: the poet can create beauty out of destruction and desolation.