Citizen Illegal
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4.5 • 16 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Olivarez steps into the ‘inbetween’ standing between Mexico and America in these compelling, emotional poems. Written with humor and sincerity” (Newsweek).
Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek and NPR.
In this “devastating debut” (Publishers Weekly), poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in, with a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch.
“The son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez celebrates his Mexican-American identity and examines how those two sides conflict in a striking collection of poems.” —USA Today
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Olivarez celebrates his family and Mexican-American identity in his hopeful, waggish, and devastating debut collection. He has a critical eye for how Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are observed, labeled, and categorized, writing that "it's hard for one body to contain two countries,/ the countries go to war & it's hard to remember you are loved by both/ sides or any sides." This concept ignites a paralyzing hyperconsciousness that offers a glimpse into the poet's oftentimes conflicting identities and provides the inventive structure of the eponymous opening poem. "Mexican woman (illegal) and Mexican man (illegal)/ have a Mexican (illegal)-American (citizen)./ is the baby more Mexican or American?" he asks. Olivarez is sharply critical of American media portrayals of Mexican-American culture: "when i watch the news i hear my name, but never see my face. every other commercial is for taco bell." Olivarez shines when he embraces the flaws and the grandeur of his background. His poem "Gentefication" imagines a neighborhood being reclaimed from gentrifiers and a people's commune taking its place: "we trade tortillas for haircuts, nopales for healthcare,/ poems for groceries, & if all you can do/ is eat the food, we ask that you wash your dishes." In the neighborhood of Olivarez's imagination, "the whole block is alive/ & not for sale."
Customer Reviews
i really like this book
i really love José Olivarez’s poetry. it makes me laugh. it makes me emotional. i’m a little biased because i am José Olivarez, but still though, i recommend it!