Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by ale_readsbooks
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States by Lori Marie Carlson, Oscar Hijuelos
4.0
“I am a walking contradiction.”
This collection of poems is pouring with lines like this one — filled with complexity and linguistic diversity.
It’s an experience that the vibrant Latino community in America can related to. “Ni de aquí, ni de allá” is somehow rooted in many of our identities. I find my self actively searching for belonging. In many of the poems there’s a yearning spirit of home.
Where is home for you? Were you born elsewhere but have lived most of your life in the U.S.? Or did your parents migrate here & now you wish to know their native country more?
I enjoyed how many of the poems mix English and Spanish together. It’s almost lyrical dancing one the page. The words sway with one of the other like they do for me in my head before I choose to speak.
As a Mexican-American I related to the ‘always tied between Mexico and the U.S.’ My connection to the Spanish language centers in the long and the late nights my mother would force me to read her books by Gabriel García Márquez or Isabel Allende. I hated it. I wan noted by it. But now I know she wanted to ensure that I never lost my Spanish language. She would confess to me later that she pushed so hard because at times it felt like her last connection to Mexico — her native language.
I loved this dynamic and relatable collection of poems. It was a pleasure to hear these stories and share them with others on my page.
This collection of poems is pouring with lines like this one — filled with complexity and linguistic diversity.
It’s an experience that the vibrant Latino community in America can related to. “Ni de aquí, ni de allá” is somehow rooted in many of our identities. I find my self actively searching for belonging. In many of the poems there’s a yearning spirit of home.
Where is home for you? Were you born elsewhere but have lived most of your life in the U.S.? Or did your parents migrate here & now you wish to know their native country more?
I enjoyed how many of the poems mix English and Spanish together. It’s almost lyrical dancing one the page. The words sway with one of the other like they do for me in my head before I choose to speak.
As a Mexican-American I related to the ‘always tied between Mexico and the U.S.’ My connection to the Spanish language centers in the long and the late nights my mother would force me to read her books by Gabriel García Márquez or Isabel Allende. I hated it. I wan noted by it. But now I know she wanted to ensure that I never lost my Spanish language. She would confess to me later that she pushed so hard because at times it felt like her last connection to Mexico — her native language.
I loved this dynamic and relatable collection of poems. It was a pleasure to hear these stories and share them with others on my page.