Jimmy Santiago Baca sends us on a journey with Sophia, an El Salvadorian mother facing a mountain of obstacles, carrying with her the burden of all that has come before: her husband’s murder, a wrenching separation from her young son at the border, then rape and abuse at the hands of ICE, yet persevering: “I keep walking/carrying you in my thoughts,” she repeats, as she wills her boy to know she is on a quest to find him.
PART I
PART II
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Sae-Po (everything we know about them is wrong)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Jimmy Baca’s new book brilliantly reimagines the epic poem—and reshapes the epic hero as a young immigrant woman struggling to escape violence and find the child that has been torn away from her. A work that speaks strikingly and passionately of our times.” —Richard Blanco
“[Baca] writes with unconcealed passion . . . both an intense lyricism and transformative vision.” —Denise Levertov
“[Baca’s] voice, brutal and tender, is unique in America.” —Ilan Stavans, The Nation
“What makes [Baca’s poetry] a success is its honesty, a brutal honesty, as well as his original imagery and the passion of his writing.” —Gary Soto, The San Francisco Chronicle
You might also be interested in:
