“Baca writes with unconcealed passion . . . and manifests both an intense lyricism and that transformative vision which perceives the mythical and archetypal significance of life events.”—Denise Levertov Champion of the International Poetry Slam, winner of the Before Columbus American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the prestigious International Award, Jimmy Santiago Baca has been writing as a mestizo (part Native American, part Mexican) and an outsider ever since he learned to read and write—in English—during a six-year Federal prison sentence when he was in his twenties. Drawing on his rich ethnic heritage and his life growing up in poverty in the Southwestern United States, Baca has a created a body of work which speaks to the disenfranchised by drawing on his experiences as a prisoner, a father, a poet, and by reflecting on the lush, and sometimes stark, landscape of the Rio Grande valley. In response to increased demand for Latino poetry in Spanish, and to thousands of Baca fans who are bilingual, this unique collection contains Spanish translations of Baca’s poetry selected from the volumes Martín and Mediations on the South Valley (1987), Black Mesa Poems (1989), Immigrants in Our Own Land (1990), Healing Earthquakes (2001), C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande (2004), and Spring Poems Along the Rio Grande (2007).

Acknowledged Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín Espada stands as the first-ever collection of essays on poet and activist Martín Espada. It is also, to date, the only published book-length, single-author study of Espada currently in existence. Relying on innovative, highly original contributions from thirteen Espada scholars, its principal aim is to argue for a long overdue critical awareness of and cultural appreciation for Espada and his body of writing. Acknowledged Legislator accomplishes this task in three fundamental ways: by providing readers with background information on the poet’s life and work; offering an examination into the subject matter and dominant themes that are frequently contained in his writing; and finally, by advocating, in a variety of ways, for why we should be reading, discussing, and teaching the Espada canon. Divided into four distinct sections that modulate through several theoretical frames—from Espada’s attention to resistance poetics and concerns for historical memory to his oppositional critique of neoliberalism and support for a class consciousness grounded in labor rights—Acknowledged Legislator offers a cohesive, forward-thinking interpretive statement of the poet’s vision and proposes a critical (re)assessment for how we read Espada, now and in the future.

This impressive volume provides over 1,700 biographical entries on poets writing in English from 1910 to the present day, including T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and Carol Ann Duffy. Authoritative and accessible, it is a must-have for students of English and creative writing, as well as for anyone with an interest in poetry.

Set against the backdrop of contemporary US economic history, Puerto Rico Is in the Heart examines the emigration, labor, and political experiences of documentary photographer, human rights activist, and Puerto Rican community leader Frank Espada and considers the cultural impact of neoliberal programs directed at Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.

Acclaimed poet Jimmy Santiago Baca knows something is wrong with contemporary society. He’s afraid “that the whole network / that connects us / and society together / is going to collapse / that our lives / will be dependent on tiny / little blue wires / that can’t shake my hand / or share my joy, / that won’t challenge the police / to stop beating a brown man / or can’t do even something as small / and gentle as smile.” In this collection of new poems, Baca expresses his sense of responsibility to use his gift for the greater good. “If not me, then who / speaks to money, power, privilege / if not / an ordinary man / then who?” He chastises those who use their connections to benefit themselves at the expense of the impoverished, imprisoned and undocumented. Frequently, he takes aim at poets and politicians who put their lucrative positions ahead of their constituents: “Governor, if you choose a career / where you have to ignore the truth / and pillage the unfortunate, at least / outlaw automatic weapons.” While many of these poems are stinging rebukes against the wealthy and powerful and their disregard for children living in poverty and the environment, others are beautiful odes to his indigenous roots. There are buffalo with their gentle hearts, sacred places where he prays to his ancestors and the plants growing on steep mountainsides that give “me courage to keep clinging to hope and to learn / life’s most important lesson / practice how to lean in life so as not to fall.” Baca writes urgently about the most important themes of our generation, including education, justice, the environment and even the coronavirus. Ironically, he notes, “the enemy didn’t come at us crossing borders, / swinging machetes and machine guns.” No, nature herself has come to clean house, to give “Mother Earth a reprieve from our greed.”