Puerto Rican Poetry: An Anthology

Acknowledgments     xviiIntroduction     xxvBefore Columbus and After, 1400-1820     1Aboriginal Beginnings: The Areyto     3   Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes (1478-I557)     7The Colonial Crucible, 1508-1820     11Conquistadors, Tropical Spaniards, Mimic Men, Proto-Creoles     11   Juan de Castellanos (1522-1607)     11Elegy the Sixth (1589)     14   Fray Damian Lopez de Haro (1581-1648)     22Puerto Rico (1644)     23   Anonymous     24[Riposte] (1644)     24   Francisco de Ayerra Santa Maria (1630-1708)     25Sonnet upon Her Death to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1700)     27   Juan Rodriguez Calderon (1775-1839+)     27To the Blessed and Beautiful Island of San Juan de Puerto Rico: A Canto (1816)     30   Miguel Cabrera (Dates Unknown)     35The Jibaro's Verses (1820)     37Vox Populi     41Coplas I     43Decimas I     45Bombas     46Songs     48Coplas II     50Decimas II     52The Creole Matrix: Notions of Nation, 1821-1950s     53Emergence to Intervention, 1821-1898     55   Maria Bibiana Benitez (1783-1875)     55The Nymph of Puerto Rico to Justice (1832)     57   Alejandrina Benitez (1819-1879)     61To My Lamp (1846)     63The Submarine Cable in Puerto Rico (1870)     64   Santiago Vidarte (1827-1848)     67Insomnia (1846)     68   Manuel A. Alonso (1822-1889)     70The Puerto Rican (1849)     73A Jibaro Wedding (1849)     73   Jose Gualberto Padilla (1829-1896)     76To a Palacio, a Caribe Reply to Manuel del Palacio (1868)     80Paraphrasis of the Sonnet "Puerto Rico" by Manuel del Palacio (1869)     86   Lola Rodriguez de Tio (1843-1924)     87Anthem (1868)     90Couplets (1876)     92To My Absent Husband (1878)     93Self-portrait (1893)     93Mist (1893+)     94   Jose Gautier Benitez (1851-1880)     95Puerto Rico (1879)     99To My Friends (1880)     106    Francisco Gonzalo ("Pachin") Marin (1863-1897)     107Hope (1898)     111The Rag (1898)     112   Luis Munoz Rivera (1859-1916)     113Nulla est redemptio (1889)     116XXXIV (1891)     121To Any Compatriot (1902)     122To Her (1902)     123Tradition, Trauma, and Transition     125Parnasians, Modernistas, Hispanophiles, Jibaristas     125   Jose de Jesus Dominguez (1843-1898)     125The White Houries (1886)     127Echoes of an Era (1889?)     131   Trinidad Padilla de Sanz (1864-1958)     131The Bath (1926)     133Tropical Landscape (1943)     133   Jose de Diego (1866-1918)     134To Spain (1916)     138Hallelujahs (1916)     138The Last String (1916)     140   Virgilio Davila (1869-1943)     142Creole Venus (1912)     145Nostalgia (1916)     145The Town (1917)     147   Luis Llorens Torres (1878-1944)     148Song of the Antilles (1913)     151Distant Song (1926)      156Creole Life (1935)     156Collores (1940)     157Feminists, Mystics, Negristas, Vanguardistas, and Nationalists     159   Clara Lair (1895-1973)     159New York Nocturnes (1928)     161Dark Adonis (1937)     162Frivolity (1937)     163Credo (1950)     165   Evaristo Ribera Chevremont (1896-1976)     167San Juan (1938)     170The Symphony of the Hammers (1943)     171Plenirade (1943)     173My Butterfly of an Antillean Isle (1964)     173   Luis Pales Matos (1898-1959)     174Festival Song to Be Wept (1929)     176Prelude in Puerto Rican (1937)     180Mulatta Antilles (1937)     182The Call (1953)     185   Jose Isaac de Diego Padro (1899-1974)     187Semela and the Satyr (1921)     189Epistle to the Pelican in the Park (1957)     190   Fernando Fortunato Vizcarrondo (1901-1977)     193En Yo Granma, Where She At?     195   Clemente Soto Velez (1905-1993)     197Solitude (1937)     199The Achieved Emotion (1954)      200#18 (1979)     202   Juan Antonio Corretjer (1908-1985)     204Jail Cell (1949)     207In Life It's Always a Going (1957)     208The Convoy (1967)     209Puerto Rican on the Moon (1980)     211   Carmen Maria CoLon Pellot (1911-2001)     212Motifs of Mulatta Envy (1938)     215Song to the Mulatto Race (Making of the Verse) (1938)     216The Land Is a Mulatta (1938)     218   Julia de Burgos (1914-1953)     218To Julia de Burgos (1938)     222My, Oh My, Oh My of the Nappy-Haired Negress (1938)     223Poem for My Dead (1954)     225   Francisco Matos Paoli (1915-2000)     226Antisonnet to the Noble Sea (1944)     228Biographical Summary (1978)     228The Puerto Ricans (1985)     230   Violeta Lopez Suria (B. 1926)     230A Few Stars in My Room (1957)     232Litany II with Embedded Sonnet (1961)     233Lovingly (1961)     234Critique, Revolt, and Renewal     235   Hugo Margenat (1933-1957)     237Landscape (1953)      239Active Poetics (1955)     239God Is Good (1956)     240Links (1956)     241   Iris M. Zavala (B. 1936)     144Words Words (1971)     246XXI (1973)     247The Pelagic Glance (1982)     247   Rosario Ferre (B. 1938)     249Opprobrium (1982)     252The Shadow of Guilt (1995)     252Language Duel (2002)     253The Bones of Conquerors (2002)     254   Olga Nolla (1938-2001)     255A Sentimental Education (1976)     256Ariadne, Postmodern, Constructs a Labyrinth (1994)     258I Regret Having to Contradict My Elders (1994)     259A Poet Doesn't Know for Certain (1994)     261   Marcos Rodriguez Frese (B. 1941)     263Superavit (1969)     264Hymn (1969)     265Vital Poetics (1971)     266   Andres Gastro Rios (B. 1942)     268Celebrating Vallejo (19??)     270The Crime Was in Grenada (1986)     270The Night and Poetry Have Something to Say (1996)     271   Hjalmar Flax (B. 1942)      273Synthesis (1978)     274The Lord's Prayer (1982)     275Determinations (1982)     275Poetic Injustice (1985)     276In Articulo Mortis (2003)     277   Vicente Rodriguez Nietzsche (B. 1942)     278Love Always Begins (1983)     279Love Spumes Us Up in lts Fluid Cascade (198?)     280   Jorge Maria Ruscalleda Bercedoniz (B. 1944)     281Let Not the Poets Say (1971)     283Homicide (1997)     285My Mother is a Seamstress (1997)     286   Juan de Matta Garcia (B. I947)     287Satiric Decima (1990)     288   Manuel Ramos Otero (1948-1990)     290Much as she would not Penelope abides... (1985)     292I Left Behind the Streets of My Country (1991)     293Vigil (1991)     294Nobility of Blood (1991)     295   Jose Luis Vega (B. 1948)     297One More (1974)     298The Body of Language (1989)     299Passion Solo II (1996)     300Passion Solo IV (1996)     301   Luz Ivonne Ochart (B. 1949)     302Convalescence (1978)     303New York, New York (1980)     305Walking Down the Streets Listening to Boleros, Boleros, and Boleros (1981)     307   Vanessa Droz (B. 1952)     309The Sixth Glass (1982)     310To Encircle the Fire (1982)     311Love's Body (1996)     313   Pedro Lopez Adorno (B. 1954)     314Study for an Island Love (1996)     315Variation on a Recipe (1996)     317Caprico with Salsa Rhythm (1996)     318   Lilliana Ramos Collado (B. 1954)     319Cliche Prosem (1981)     320Condemned Women (1998)     321Euclidiana (1998)     322Consequences of Thermodynamics (1998)     322Of Diasporas, Syncretisms, Border Crossings, and Transnationalizations: An AmeRican Sancocho     323   Rosario Morales (B. 1930)     325Getting Out Alive (1986)     326Africa (1986)     331My Revolution (1986)     331   Jaime Carrero (B. 1931)     333Jet neorriqueno/Neo-Rican Jetliner (1964)     335Conversacion II (1964)     336Lamento 0 (1964)     337    Jack Agueros (B. 1934)     338Sonnet for 1950 (1991)     340Sonnet for the # 6 (1991)     341Psalm for Your Image (1991)     341Psalm for the Next Millennium (2002)     342   Miguel Algarin (B. 1941)     344Mongo Affair (1978)     346High Wine in Beehive, Guyana (1978)     351El Jibarito Moderno (1979)     352Nuyorican Angel of Records (1997)     353   Lydia Cortes (B. 1942)     354You Must Be in the Potatoes, Because You Look So Good (Second Language Acquisitions) (2002)     355Bouillabaisse (2002)     355Embouchements (2002)     356   Pedro Pietri (1944-2004)     357Puerto Rican Obituary (1972)     358Telephone Booth 905[frac12] (1973)     367Traffic Misdirector (1983)     367Nighttime Sunshine Mind Game (1994)     369   Louis Reyes Rivera (B. 1945)     372No hole in a punctured poem (1977)     373The adverb (1996)     374January pigeons (19??)     376Like Toussaint, so Marti (1996)     378   Miguel Pinero (1946-1988)      381A Lower East Side Poem (1975)     382This Is Not the Place Where I Was Born (1985)     384The Menudo of a Cuchifrito Love Affair (1985)     387   Julio Marzan (B. 1946)     389Che's Picture in Ramparts (1978)     391The Pure Preposition (1986)     392The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers (1995)     392Arresting Beauty (2003)     393Tom, Dick, and Sally (2003)     394   Alba Ambert (B. 1946)     395San Juan Bautista Port, 1852 (2002)     397Canticles of Desire (2002)     404I Want to Remember (2002)     406   Felipe Luciano (B. 1947)     408Jibaro, My Pretty Nigger (1968)     410The Library (1969)     412Maya (1988)     413   Sandra Maria Esteves (B. 1948)     422Autobiography of a Nuyorican (1990)     424Who Is Going to TelI Me? (1990)     425Black Notes and "You Do Something to Me" (1990)     427   Victor Hernandez Cruz (B. 1949)     429Energy (1968)     431You Gotta Have Your Tips on Eire (1972)     431Three Songs from the 50s (1976)     433Atmospheric Phenomenon: The Art of Hurricanes (1997)     434   Tato Laviera (B. 1951)     440Palm tree in spanglish figurines (1979)     441Tito madera smith (1985)     442AmeRican (1988)     445   Judith Ortiz Cofer (B. 1952)     447The Idea of Islands (1987)     449The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica (1991)     450We Are All Carriers (1995)     451Latin Women Pray (1995)     452   Aurora Levins Morales (B. 1954)     453Child of the Americas (1986)     454Class Poem (1986)     455Heart's Desire (1986)     458   Martin Espada (B. 1957)     459Black Train through the Ancient Empire of Chicago (1982)     461Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction (1987)     462Niggerlips (1990)     463The River Will Not Testify (2000)     464   Naoimi Ayala (B. 1964)     467Immigrant's Voice (1997)     468Abuelo's Garden (1997)     469In a World of Few Merengues (1997)     469Historical Chronology     471Select Bibiliography      485

\ CHOICEHighly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.\ \ \ \ \ Multi Cultural ReviewMarquez's deft translations, many of poems previously unavailable in English, leave every lyric voice clear and unburdened.\ \ \ Multicultural ReviewMajor themes in history and the subject of poetry don't usually go together in the curriculum, but this anthology shows why they should. . . . Marquez's deft translations, many of poems previously unavailable in English, leave every lyric voice clear and unburdened.\ \ \ \ \ KLIATTFrom the very first pages this anthology takes you by surprise. It is a well-structured and clearly laid-out evolution of Puerto Rican poetry, from three centuries before Spanish colonization right up to the present, and it is full of historical detail and cultural context. The scholarship is astute and insightful, and allows the voices of those who were "there" to speak about the poetry they heard when they first encountered it. This allows for a historical context to emerge with the poetry that gives meaning and substance to a culture that has often been imposed on by other, dominant cultures. Marquez's translations are on the whole clear and substantive and free from word choices that allow for unintended double meanings that were not present in the original. Marquez is at his very best when he is translating humorous and sarcastic poems written as critiques of a hegemonic power. This is very evident in his translation of Hjalmar Flax's "The Lord's Prayer": "Our father who art in the office / hallowed be thy name. / Make us inheritors of your estate. / Thy will be done at home / as it is at work. / Give us this day our daily steak, french fries, / and chocolate ice cream…" This is an outstanding anthology and deserves its place among the best anthologies written on Caribbean and Latin American literature.\ \