Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either

Poems

978-1-68003-265-9 Paperback
6 x 8 x 0 in
46 pp.
Pub Date: 05/25/2022
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Winner of the 2021 Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize, selected by Benjamin Garcia
Selena Didn't Know Spanish Either is a debut poetry collection which seeks Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla as a means of reconnecting to the speaker’s cultural identity. As Spanish language and culture becomes more accessible to non-Latinx populations, the speaker grapples with her own complex story of assimilation. Modern marginalization, appropriation, tokenizing, and fetishizing are examined in this multi-generational memoir tracking a Latinx family’s journey to assimilation. This dynamic collection is far-reaching, exploring BIPOC experiences in predominantly white cultures.

from “Young Memoir”
 
di·as·po·ra
is silent. is spiritual. It is being robbed of memoir while you sleep in a suburb. it is nonconsensually sensual—it is a question. when it comes for you, what will you recover? what will you do to reclaim all that was forced lost?

 

Published by Texas Review Press