Americano: Growing Up Gay And Latino In The USA

Americano: Growing up Gay and Latino in the USA is a groundbreaking collection from one of the most provocative voices in modern American poetry. The poems contained in these pages challenge mainstream sexual, political and religious beliefs reflecting unique experiences from the outskirts of the heartland. In pursuit of the American dream, this is a tribute to freedom and equality from an insider looking out while enjoying a piece of both the apple and lemon merengue pie.

“Emanuel Xavier's work begins in street poetry--angry, direct, and raw--but he complicates that style with sweetness, jokes, surprising details, grace notes, mystery, and sudden beauty. You never know where one of his poems will take you. There is anger in his humor, but love in his anger. He is fully in touch with a rich range of emotions. Just open this book to "Americano" or "Teresa" or "Elegantly Fucked" and see what I mean. He is a poet who is not afraid to feel--and say--anything.”
—author Christopher Bram

“In the religious light of these poems the everyday gets revealed as a miracle again and again. Two boys having sex (‘your mother in the other room’) are without contradiction entirely hot and holy. Emanuel Xavier is a poet who takes wild comfort in the world and knows god is watching too.” —poet Eileen Myles

“Emanuel Xavier sweeps into the streets with the audacity to show us his heart, reflecting fearlessly on a life consumed with the passion to live it. In these vivid poems immersed with humility, presence and love—he shares with us, the tastes, the smells, the beat, all the vaya passionistica that it takes to be Americano—to be a human being in a modern-day America that knows too many boundaries. Xavier is aware that words alone can’t save the world, but they can definitely start the revolution.”
—poet Edwin Torres