These Are Not Sweet Girls: Poetry by Latin American Women (Secret Weavers Series) (Vol 7)
These Are Not Sweet Girls, an anthology of 53 Latin American poets (including a single Brazilian, Adelia Prado), strives to combat "the offical discourse of power" that keeps women's poetry outside the literary mainstream. Poets range from Gabriela Mistral (born 1889) and Alfonsina Storni (born 1892) to Teresa Calderon and editor Agosin (both born 1955). Chilean Alicia Galaz Vivar looks to the day when men erase their superior smiles and wash away "the sad fury of mortal decisions"; Puerto Rican Olga Nolla lashes out at Aristotle for calling women "mutilated men"; and Mexican Rosario Castellanos reflects that "we give life only to what we hate." The anthology is not bilingual, and the translators are individually noted. Although none of the Sweet Girls cross over into Paper Dance, nearly half of the 55 Latino poets featured in Paper Dance are also women, and their bicultural testimony is sometimes more intense. Sandra Maria Esteves condemns Spain's "legacy denied," and Magdalena Gomez curses Columbus "who feared no error/as long as the crucified/did not look like himself." Others re-create Hispanic figures such as Joaquin Murieta or Federico Garcia Lorca or invent a "Marilyn Monroe Indian." Americans of every Hispanic background are represented, urban as well as rural. Julia Alvarez and Jimmy Santiago Baca are here, but (inexplicably) Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo are not. Recommended for poetry collections.?Jack Shreve, Allegany Community Coll., Cumberland, Md.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.