Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States
Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–As she did inCool Salsa(Holt, 1994), Carlson assembles another impressive forum of poetic voices. In Spanish and English, the poets speak eloquently of themselves, how and where they live, their families, and their dreams for the future. Many of them are quite well known and a number were included in the earlier book: Gary Soto, Gina Valdés, Martín Espada, and Luis J. Rodríguez, among others. In this volume, Carlson has added a few poems by students in the New York City public school system: they, too, are excellent and thought-provoking. Ivette Álvarez, for example, issues a passionate plea in Invisible Boundaries to go beyond the stereotypes that/lock us down and judge us. Other poems will delight readers with their delicate play of language, as in José Antonio Burciaga's Bilingual Love Poem/Poema de amor bilingüe, or in Tato Laviera's My Graduation Speech, which conveys a sardonic frustration through its comic mix of languages. By turns humorous and poignant, nostalgic and immediate, these poems represent a diversity of experiences, underpinned by emotions that anyone can recognize. Once again, Oscar Hijuelos's personable, highly readable introduction sets the tone. Carlson has crafted an accessible gem of a collection, and teen readers of all backgrounds will find echoes of their own experiences in its pages.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.