What do you think?
Rate this book
Rant. Chant. Chisme.
2015 Writers' League of Texas Book Awards, Poetry Discovery Prize
Rant. Chant. Chisme. is the debut collection of poetry by south Texas native Amalia Ortiz, featuring writing from the first decade of her career. Readers will get a taste of life on the border from the perspective of a young woman of color struggling to write herself into existence. These poems introduce a unique new transcultural feminist viewpoint as the poems call for social and political change along the borderlands. Ortiz, an award-winning performance poet known for her dynamic delivery style, relinquishes control of her writing to the reader, but not without first imparting the theatrical stage directions stated in the book’s title, which commands readers to recite these poems aloud in a spoken word celebration exploring culture, music, and place while encouraging the reader to embrace diversity and find their own storytelling voice.
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2015
About the author
Amalia L. Ortiz
3 books7 followersAmalia Leticia Ortiz is a Tejana actor, writer, and activist who appeared on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and has toured colleges and universities as a solo artist and with performance-poetry troupes Diva Diction, The Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word, and the Def Poetry College Tour. Her debut book of poetry, Rant. Chant. Chisme., (Wings Press), won the 2015 Poetry Discovery Prize from the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards and was selected by NBC Latino as one of the “10 Great Latino Books of 2015.” A CantoMundo Fellow and Hedgebrook Writer-In-Residence alumna, she received the 2002 Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, which was founded by Sandra Cisneros, and her poem “These Hands Which Have Never Picked Cotton” was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Her MFA is in Creative Writing from the University of Texas Río Grande Valley.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2015
Amalia Ortiz has one of the most powerful, engaging voices in spoken-word poetry today. Every time I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her perform, I’ve gotten goose bumps at her ineluctable, entrancing craft. As luck would have it, I’ve been the editor of anthologies in which her work was featured and though I don’t know whether my reading is colored by my having seen her live, but even on the page her words seem to strut and gesticulate, pouncing at my mind.
So it was a wonderful surprise to encounter those works and more in Rant, Chant, Chisme, which also features a great cover painting by Celeste de Luna. In four amazing sections — Magic Valley Girl, Mujer de Tacolandia, Mestizo American, Madre Valiente y sus Hijos — Ortiz defiantly redefines la mujer chocante (the loud-mouthed woman) into a heroic, admirable figure who embraces her faults (“these hands which have never picked cotton”) and her strengths (“spoken word is my temple”). Thus completed, she stands in solidarity with her sisters and other marginalized groups in stirring, hard-hitting piece after piece.
I particularly loved “Old Colossus, Resurrected,” “The Women of Juárez” and “Devil at the Dance.” Pick up a copy and find your favorites, too.
So it was a wonderful surprise to encounter those works and more in Rant, Chant, Chisme, which also features a great cover painting by Celeste de Luna. In four amazing sections — Magic Valley Girl, Mujer de Tacolandia, Mestizo American, Madre Valiente y sus Hijos — Ortiz defiantly redefines la mujer chocante (the loud-mouthed woman) into a heroic, admirable figure who embraces her faults (“these hands which have never picked cotton”) and her strengths (“spoken word is my temple”). Thus completed, she stands in solidarity with her sisters and other marginalized groups in stirring, hard-hitting piece after piece.
I particularly loved “Old Colossus, Resurrected,” “The Women of Juárez” and “Devil at the Dance.” Pick up a copy and find your favorites, too.
June 10, 2019
As a child growing up in South Texas, I knew what being a hocicona meant.
It meant you were a repelona who enjoyed arguing. A chismosa who told everyone’s business. A cabrona who often picked a fight. A metiche who put her foot down when nobody asked her opinion.
Mostly, I understood a hocicona to be someone who had something to say and the best part, had an audience to listen to her.
Someday, I want to be an hocicona like Amalia.
Her chismes entertain me like a good Mexican telenovela. Ella suelta la sopa and speaks in volumes through her resonating verses, opening up conversations often suppressed, as with ‘Women of Juarez’ and ‘the short skirt speaks’.
Amalia’s poems remember. They cry. They tell on you. They don’t know how to play hide-and-seek well. They count you in when you try to blend in. And caray, do they speak!
It meant you were a repelona who enjoyed arguing. A chismosa who told everyone’s business. A cabrona who often picked a fight. A metiche who put her foot down when nobody asked her opinion.
Mostly, I understood a hocicona to be someone who had something to say and the best part, had an audience to listen to her.
Someday, I want to be an hocicona like Amalia.
Her chismes entertain me like a good Mexican telenovela. Ella suelta la sopa and speaks in volumes through her resonating verses, opening up conversations often suppressed, as with ‘Women of Juarez’ and ‘the short skirt speaks’.
Amalia’s poems remember. They cry. They tell on you. They don’t know how to play hide-and-seek well. They count you in when you try to blend in. And caray, do they speak!
August 24, 2016
The language in Ortiz's book is gorgeous and powerful. Do not be surprised by the bilingual nature of this book; and please do not attempt to translate the Spanish into English. This book is essential reading.
December 23, 2015
The next best thing to seeing her perform!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews