By Ada Tseng
FROM: LA Times OC

The first poem in Anatalia Vallez’s “the most spectacular mistake” is called “bond,” and it’s about honoring the generations of Mexican women who came before her.

“As a fetus my mother inhaled love,” it reads. “it lingered in her vocal chords / then traveled to her stomach / through her umbilical cord / and into me / it now lives between my stomach and diaphragm.”

“Perhaps that’s why I exist / to exhale what was trapped in my mother’s throat.”

Vallez, who is named after her great-grandmother, dedicates her debut poetry book “to all survivors of violence — may we reclaim our power and our narratives.”

“Para las mujeres que me rebozaron,” which follows, is a reference to the women, but also to the rebozo, the long, thick garment often worn by indigenous women in Mexico.

It can be used for warmth or fashion, or also to strap a child around a woman’s body. To Vallez, it’s a symbol of strength in the way it holds tight the most vulnerable and keeps them safe. Read Rest of Article Here