Floricanto Si!: A Collection of Latina Poetry

Floricanto Si! combines the poetry of such major literary figures as Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Ana Castillo, with the work of a second generation of post-Chicano movement poets whose startlingly original voices are just being discovered. The forty-seven Latina contributors hail from the U.S., from New York to North Dakota. Their roots are in Mexico and the Caribbean, Argentina and Peru, Brazil and El Salvador. Yet their work is bound by common cutural themes, such as identity, bilingualism, machismo and political oppression, and by recurring allusions to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Sor Juana de la Cruz, Frida Kahlo, and various Aztec dieties. Further, there is a spirit of unity apparent in the sensual imagery and vibrancy of their poetic language. Floricanto Si! is a stunning collection that interprets America to itself in new ways. As the editors write in an introduction that covers the history of Latina poetry in the U.S., "Within this amazing multiplicity we find a new poetic sensibility emerging from a still-evolving mestiza consciousness. We are watching an ancient nebula birth new stars."