Goodbye, Mexico: Poems of Remembrance

by Sarah Cortez (Contributor)

This anthology gathers the strong voices of accomplished poets reaching into and beyond nostalgia to remember, to honor, and to document through figurative imagery their experiences of Mexico and the vibrant border areas before the ravages of narco-violence.

Locals Listen to the Mariachi Band at El Jardin in San Miguel            
You see their silhouettes along the stone wall
or arm in arm below the glow of garden lights
huddled like foothills, earth you could plant maize in.
 
Cowboy hats and serapes, the smell of beer and
cinnamon churros.  You think of family and language
how the music rolls through your hips
 
to the sweat behind your knees.  How it rushes
through you, to a place you still don’t know.
 
―Lois P. Jones

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2014

About the author

SARAH CORTEZ, resident of Houston and member of the Texas Institute of Letters, is the author of two poetry collections and winner of the PEN Texas literary award in poetry. Her mixed-genre memoir, Walking Home: Growing up Hispanic in Houston, was published by Texas Review Press in 2012. She has edited six anthologies, ranging from crime fiction to memoir to poetry.

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Reviews

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating should be weighted by the fact I am in the book, but I think Sarah Cortez did a wonderful job as editor and bringing in a very varied and lively collection together.

[Joey Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really well put-together collection of poems. There's some humor in here, lots of English/Spanish code switching, and is a fantastic survey of Mexico and the northern border. I found a lot of poems in here very fascinating, sometimes humorous, sometimes soul-crushing. The aim of the book is remembrance, and it's accomplished as an anthology - but each individual poem, and to a certain extent, each line, delivers a wallop. The breadth of authors is great as well - I enjoyed reading the biographies and connections to Mexico at the end of the book.

Favorite poems: "Pyramids, Mexico" by Jim Daniels; "Eating Chimichangas in Zacatecas" by C. Derick Varn, "The Right Foot of Juan de Oñate" by Martín Espada.

[David]

Poet Sarah Cortez, confronted with the question of how people of all ethnicities living in the United States Southwest feel about the unrest and violence in Mexico, set out to prepare an anthology of literary reactions to what has been lost.

She has edited for Texas Review Press the volume Goodbye, Mexico: Poems of Remembrance, bringing together a rich tapestry of work from a wide range of voices that springboard from nostalgia into celebration and documentation of a sister country that seems forever lost.

Featuring the work of poets laureates, Latinos, Anglos, writers of every stripe (including, full disclosure, yours truly), this memorial will reward anyone who thinks back with longing on the Mexico of old.