Associate Professor of
Spanish and Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages, Jennifer Rathbun, together
with the coeditor, Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department
of Modern and Foreign Languages at Ohio Wesleyan University, Juan Armando Rojas
Joo, just recently published their bilingual (Spanish/English) anthology of
poetry,
Sangre mía/Blood of Mine:
Poetry
of Border Violence, Gender
and Identity in Ciudad Juárez,
as part of the
Center for Latin American Studies Collection of the UP of New Mexico State
University. The fifty-three poets featured in the publication denounce violence
in general, and, in particular, committed against women along the U.S. – Mexico
border region of Ciudad Juárez – El Paso, TX.
The voices of the fifty-three poets
included in the anthology best represent the poetic response to violence and femicide
in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Their verses make a stand against the
indifference, neglect and impunity and they offer their readers alternatives to
the simulacra of official discourse surrounding violence in Chihuahua. In fact,
the poet, Susana Chavéz, featured in the collection fell victim to the very
femicide she denounced. Susana was a writer, social activist and media blogger
who was best known for coining the phrase “Ni una muerta más” used in the
social campaigns against femicide in Ciudad Juárez. The only poem she ever
officially published in life appeared in Canto
a una ciudad en el desierto (México, D.F.: Ediciones La Cuadrilla de la
Langosta, 2004), “Blood of mine”, whose title she later changed in her
blog spot to “Blood of ours”. She was brutally murdered in January 2011.
Authorities claimed that she had been partying with young men and held her
responsible for her own murder. Susana Chavéz was laid to rest with the verses
of her poem and her blood has truly become blood of ours. The title of this anthology Sangre mía…/Blood of Mine… pays homage
to Susana and hopes to bring her message of peace to many more readers by
offering a bilingual en face edition
of these verses for the very first time.
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