Eventually, Inevitably / Tarde o temprano era inevitable: My Writing Life in Verse / Mi vida de escritor en verso

by René Saldaña Jr.

When students ask author René Saldaña, Jr. how one becomes a writer, he says, “It’s complicated.” In this memoir written in verse for young adults, the author remembers his boyhood and the path that led to his becoming a reader, writer and scholar. He begins with “The My Parents as Kids,” and recounts “’Apá was born a long time ago / ‘Amá a few years after him.” His father finished elementary school in Mier, Tamaulipas, and then went to Nuevo Laredo to study machines. His parents married in Chihuahua, “It’s got one street / called Charco, or mud-puddle.”

René’s childhood along the Texas-Mexico border was filled with lots of family—cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents; his abuelo told countless stories that helped define the boy. He read magazines at the grocery store, watched his mother read Selecciones, the Spanish-language version of Reader’s Digest, and realized writing poetry was the way to get a girlfriend. But he remembers junior high school as “those blasted years” and the teachers “who made me fall / out of love with reading a book.” Later he found a book in the library in which he saw himself for the first time; there were kids that spoke Spanish, had brown skin and names like his.

This touching portrait depicts the development of a writer and the impact his rural, Mexican-American community had on his growth into a published author and university scholar. Written in an accessible style and available in a bilingual format, this moving and often humorous memoir in narrative verse will appeal to all teens. Young people of color and reluctant male readers will find it of particular interest.

222 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2023

About the author

René Saldaña Jr. graduated from Georgia State University (Ph.D.) with degrees in English and creative writing. He and his family live in south Texas, where he teaches English and writing at the university level. He is the author of "The Jumping Tree "and "Finding Our Way."

Reviews

[SOYAMRG · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this bilingual memoir collection of over 80 poems written in English with Spanish sprinkled in the text, readers can then flip the book over to read it in Spanish. Mexican-American novelist-poet Saldaña (author of The Jumping Tree and The Whole Sky Full of Stars) shares his youthful experience with books and writing. He opens with a poem with multiple responses to the question: “How do you become a writer?” by giving on that is snooty, distant, cold, and stupid, then responds with a genuine answer: “It’s complicated”.

Each poem is a vignette of an event or about a person in his life who has held great influence on him as both a reader and writer. They include his parents, his teachers and school librarian, other authority figures, friends and girlfriends, and life events such as his first (and last) kiss, music, running into Border Patrol, selecting books to read for school, and seeing himself in a book. While several poems such as “This Aine Nothing Like Reading” and “My Very First Car Worth Mentioning Was an Orange ‘57 Chevy” are riddled with fun and humor, others are tempered with the difficulties he or others in his family experienced such as the series of 10 numbered poems titled “Waiting Our Turn at the Border Patrol Checkpoint, Falfurrias, TX”. His interest and growth in learning to read and write is chronicled in a way that many non-readers will enjoy – particularly in “A Book, an Escape”.

Saldaña uses several types of poetry, including concrete, free verse, tercets, and couplets to tell his story. He includes several of his poems which have been previously published elsewhere. Note: The Spanish translation was not reviewed.
Include in units on author studies and in Spanish classes.

Recommended for grades 7-12.

S.B.
Children's Literature Consultant

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this bilingual collection of over 80 poems written in English with Spanish sprinkled in the text, readers can then flip the book over to read it in Spanish. Mexican-American novelist-poet Saldaña (author of The Jumping Tree and The Whole Sky Full of Stars) shares his youthful experience with books and writing. He opens with a poem with multiple responses to the question: “How do you become a writer?” by giving on that is snooty, distant, cold, and stupid, then responds with a genuine answer: “It’s complicated”.

Each poem is a vignette of an event or about a person in his life who has held great influence on him as both a reader and writer. They include his parents, his teachers and school librarian, other authority figures, friends and girlfriends, and life events such as his first (and last) kiss, music, running into Border Patrol, selecting books to read for school, and seeing himself in a book. While several poems such as “This Aine Nothing Like Reading” and “My Very First Car Worth Mentioning Was an Orange ‘57 Chevy” are riddled with fun and humor, others are tempered with the difficulties he or others in his family experienced such as the series of 10 numbered poems titled “Waiting Our Turn at the Border Patrol Checkpoint, Falfurrias, TX”. His interest and growth in learning to read and write is chronicled in a way that many non-readers will enjoy – particularly in “A Book, an Escape”.

Saldaña uses several types of poetry, including concrete, free verse, tercets, and couplets to tell his story. He includes several of his poems which have been previously published elsewhere. Note: The Spanish translation was not reviewed.

Include this in units on author studies and in Spanish classes.

Recommended for grades 7-12.

[Karly Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story centers on family life between identities of Mexican and American worlds that intertwine. The main character and the narrator, who is the author Rene Saldana Jr.; he talk’s about his childhood. This childhood built upon Apa and Amo who worked very hard to provide they best they could for him and his siblings. Saldana writes about his primos and primas and his best buds growing up. He writes about the different places he lived in in Texas and a bit in California. Saldana talks about his abuelo and abuela. Saldana shows the significant impacts of the people of his childhood and how that made an impact on his life.
I love that in this collection of poems from his childhood Saldana chooses to focus immensely on his father. His father’s hard-working hands. His father’s thoughts in different places. His father’s actions on a Saturday morning. Saldana seems to be analyzing how his father was a ro-model for him in becoming a man. A man that was sincerely humble and truly cared about his family in their circumstances. I enjoyed what Saldana wrote about his experience in childhood with English and Spanish. He was lost in his language. He did not remember learning to speak to another at a different time. How he seems to unpack his identity with language is incredible to read. So many young readers can benefit from this work. Especially those in similar language situations or those whose parents are immigrants.