Passionately demonstrating the dormant trauma of political violence and the redemption waiting beyond it

From El Salvador's lush countryside to the streets of Oakland, California, a young mother wrestles with the intersecting forces of memory, history, and language in order to chart a new path for herself and her growing family. Fleeing political unrest and civil war violence in El Salvador, fourteen-year-old Claudia Castro Luna arrived in the United States with her family in 1981. Two decades later, holding her two-year-old and pregnant with her second child, she survives a public shooting by hiding behind shrubs in front of her house in Oakland. This event unleashes disorienting and traumatic memories, plunging her into a journey of discovery as she grapples with PTSD, recovers family stories, and begins to make sense of all that was torn asunder within her by the experiences of war and emigration. Beauty, longing, fear, and joy entwine in this powerful story of love, self-determination, and the search for home.

Autorentext

Claudia Castro Luna is a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, a former Washington State Poet Laureate, and Seattle's inaugural Civic Poet. She is the author of the poetry collections Green, the World; Cipota Under the Moon; Killing Marías; One River, A Thousand Voices; **and This City, a chapbook. Her nonfiction has appeared in anthologies, journals, and newspapers. Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives and dreams in English and Spanish.

Inhalt

To Water, Water, to Spirit, Prayer

Birthday Cake

Mango, Mangue

Say Peace

Election Time

Nothing Blue

Borrón y Cuenta Nueva

The Body Remembers Even When the Mind Forgets

A Teacher's Life

Truce

La Situación

One Stitch at a Time

Dancing in the Time of War

Diagnosis

Todos Contra Todos

Sueños

We Belonged to Each Other

After the Long Night

A House to Call Home

Make Room for the New

Sideways

Everything Has Its Story

Dulce

Flor y Canto

A Door Opens

To Be a Champion

The Heart Knows When

Alphabets

Libros

Faith

The Last Evening

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes and References