Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution

With a powerful and poignant introduction from Julia Alvarez, Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution is an extraordinary collection, rooted in a strong tradition of protest poetry and voiced by icons of the movement and some of the most exciting writers today. The poets of Resistencia explore feminist, queer, Indigenous, and ecological themes alongside historically prominent protests against imperialism, dictatorships, and economic inequality. Within this momentous collection, poets representing every Latin American country grapple with identity, place, and belonging, resisting easy definitions to render a nuanced and complex portrait of language in rebellion. Included in English translation alongside their original language, the fifty-four poems in Resistencia are a testament to the art of translation as much as the act of resistance. An all-star team of translators, including former US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera along with young, emerging talent, have made many of the poems available for the first time to an English-speaking audience. Urgent, timely, and absolutely essential, these poems inspire us all to embrace our most fearless selves and unite against all forms of tyranny and oppression.

Review :
Exactly the kind of book this world needs more of. . . . This is a must-read.-- "Book Marks" With their overriding theme of the search for justice and equality in an age of global unrest, these poems may never be more timely.-- "Library Journal" Reading these poems, I felt as if this brilliant chorus of writers, living and departed, was delivering a call to action: 'We have been here all along, fighting. Won't you join us?'--Frances de Pontes Peebles, author of The Air You Breathe Resistencia could not be more timely. It is a stunning collection of revelations and witness. . . . Indispensable.--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels Resistencia is alive with bravery, feminism, strength, agency, protest, power and hope.-- "Ms. Magazine" Resistencia is as uplifting as choral music and as devastating as the news.-- "San Francisco Chronicle" Resistencia resists being an easy Latinx experience. While many of these poems are about war and pain, it would be a disservice to characterize them solely as melancholic. Even surrounded in death and destruction, there is a vibrancy in the lines. There is joy. There is living. Beauty's put forward bravely.--David Tomas Martinez, author of Post Traumatic Hood Disorder A poetic manual for resistance has arrived. . . . Resistencia's dream team of translators has spectacularly rendered this polyglot volume into a vibrant whole while also making it approachable for newcomers to Latin American literature. As a poetic primer in the language and tradition of protest, it is essential.-- "Seven Days" The poems in Resistencia do not soothe but shake us awake, and they call on us to do what they have done: to witness, to listen, to not only speak but sing.--Maggie Smith, author of Good Bones