Names Above Houses: Poems
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In Names above Houses, Oliver de la Paz uses both prose and verse poems to create the magical realm of Fidelito Recto—a boy who wants to fly—and his family of Filipino immigrants. Fidelito’s mother, Maria Elena, tries to keep her son grounded while struggling with her own moorings. Meanwhile, Domingo, Fidelito's fisherman father, is always at sea, even when among them. From the archipelago of the Philippines to San Francisco, horizontal and vertical movements shape moments of displacement and belonging for this marginalized family. Fidelito approaches life with a sense of wonder, finding magic in the mundane and becoming increasingly uncertain whether he is in the sky or whether his feet are planted firmly on the ground.
AcknowledgmentsIn the Year of the Rat3The Romance of Bait11At Sea Domingo Learned to Steady His Hand12Insects in Maria Elena's Kitchen13The Flood of Ants14A Parable15Before Takeoff, Fidelito Prays16Fidelito Sails over Manila17On His First Flight Over18Fidelito Haunts Airports19On the Downward Escalator20Manong Jose, While Cleaning His Last Window Before Coffee, Sees Fidelito and Is Pleased Though Wary21Fidelito Prays to the Wind, Asking for Advice, but Not Really Asking22School Years25When Fidelito Is the New Boy at School26Why Maria Elena Calls the Boy's Name So Many Times in a Day27Fidelito Takes Flight up a Ladder28For Hours, Fidelito Hangs from the Topmost Branch Before Letting Go29She Leaves the Water Running30Fidelito Suddenly Becomes Afraid of Heights31From the Ocean, Fidelito Pulls32The Fisherman's Chronicle33Grounding34In Sleep He Practices Flying35Three Madonnas36The Fourth Madonna37Carpenter Ants38From a Country with One Million Maria39A Cupboard Full of Halos40Fidelito Dreams the Village41Domingo, Too Old for Fishing42The Romance of the Television43When Fidelito Says He'll Fly Away44Domingo's Advice for Fidelito45Nine Secrets the Recto Family Can't Tell the Boy46Origami Dove48Manong Jose Remembers Fidelito's First Fall49Fidelito Contemplates How Powerful He Has Become and Thinks of Ways to Alter Weather Patterns50Mind-Swimming53After the Boy Goes to Bed54Domingo's Blood Clot55The Romance of the Amputated Leg56How Domingo Disappears57In the Dream with Blue Snow58The Death of Domingo Recto59What Fidelito Knows of His Father60Maria Elena Puts His Good Shoes Away62What the Kitchen Was63The Way the Blessed Mourn64Earth and Sky65Birds and Their Various Fevers66A Plan to Control the Weather67Under the Stained Glass Saints68The Puzzle of Kites69The Box of Stars70What the Laundry Told Maria Elena71Wren Jealousies72An Anatomy of Birds73The Miraculous Ascension of Fidelito Recto74Manong Jose Discusses How the Boy and His Strangeness Grew into His Name75When Fidelito Grows Up, Maria Elena Reads76With the Grace of Basket Weavers77Fidelito Speaks of One Evening at the Turn of a Century but Mentions No Particular Century78
