Tropico

by Marcela Huerta

Marcela Huerta's debut collection of poetry tackles grief, memory, and the experiences of a second-generation immigrant. The daughter of political refugees from Chile, Huerta shares memories of her recently departed father, who becomes a symbol for Chilean culture and leftist resistance after his passing. Through the intimate detailing of everyday occurrences, Tropico reveals how intergenerational trauma disrupts childhood and lays bare the lived effects of American imperialism.

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was fortunate to hear Marcela read from Tropico in Ottawa at the Metatron/Vehicule Press reading in late autumn at Black Squirrel Books. at the time I was struck by her calm delivery of struggles and horrors described in the book. As I read the book, what I noticed was the matter-of-fact-style and the sudden surprise figurative language amidst the everyday. this is a well-written and effective series of poems & poem-anecdotes.

[ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

wtf so good !

[Naimah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explorations of how migration-related grief is carried in everyday occurrences.

[Anabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars

"I am embarrassed / I am embarrassed / not of you / but of me / I am not contemporary / I do not belong here / I am feeling so much / and so little / of it / is digitally prescient " (p. 46)

I am conflicted about this one.

I really liked how Huerta tackles themes of grief, intergenerational trauma and memory through mundane vignettes. It all felt like glimpses of a bigger picture you as the reader needed to piece back together. Yet, sometimes, it was (maybe) too mundane. It kind of fell flat for me in places. I just didn't vibe with the extremely matter-of-fact (kind of dry?) writing. I felt like I was kept at arm's length. Thus, my reading experience was a bit emotionless. I believe it was intentional: the author most likely had to work hard to distance herself from the difficulties she faced in her childhood. Sadly, it just didn't work for me. The imagery and metaphors didn't touch me. Still, A few were really moving (like the one about ghosts on page 54).

I liked how she combined poems in free verse and poems in prose. Both styles complemented each other and allow the exploration of similar themes differently. In general, the prose poems were quite strong (although quite vague, which I would attribute to the overall memory theme). However, a lot of the poems in verse were just sentences broken up randomly and didn't manage to establish a strong rhythm. It was a bit choppy for my taste.

Moreover, I am torn on the use of the second person. It's a literary device I really like, as it makes a text feel so intimate. Yet, in this specific case, it seems like the reader was not invited into this intimacy. The "you" was always hovering but never fixed.

So, it was a bit of a let-down for my personal taste, but I still think Huerta is an important voice in poetry today and I would not be opposed to reading more from her.

[Nick Carraway LLC · Rating 5 out of 5]

1) "Pablo Neruda wrote with green ink, yes, I already knew that. They had a page of his writing laminated. That I find strange, probably that paper was worth a lot of money and now it is plastic and has been held by babies and strange white men with tropical shirts. His house was five stories, I say, tapering until the top floor, and it's big enough just for a desk and a little window seat. It has windows almost all the way around, so that on every side you can see the city rolling down below you, all those hills. And the ocean? Well yes, and the ocean. I didn't see that house, you say. Everything is sectioned off and they don't let you take pictures, but I took one in his third-floor bathroom when I was by myself. Bueno, hija, es tu derecho."

2) "On Saturdays the pig follows your father to the bar and sits next to him, near enough to place a drink on. He also serves to bring the ground up in case one falls, which is a help. Many are jealous. Many believe the pig is an accomplice in the act of cheating at cards, but those in the know are well aware the dog is the mastermind, look at his eyes."

3) "Something that can happen when you live in a place that is let's say not that well developed is that you can start to try to find ways to save space in arenas that you would not typically choose as arenas to save space in. What I'm describing is a compromise in a sector of the community that is let's say unbothered by any sort of change to begin with. I'm trying to say that in Maipú, there came a time when—and honestly this is an inevitability in any town, I'm not being judgmental—when the graveyard got to be too full."

[Pink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friend gifted it to me. Beautiful, clear language. Strong images. Quite poignant at times and funny at others (eg “Revolutionary Watchtowers”). There are parts that get at the ambivalence of love and expectation really piercingly like in “Rose on a Hill”.

I understand the collection is a tribute to Huerta’s father but I felt the use of the second person wasn’t necessary to communicate that. There is a sensitivity to the work that I found really pulled me and then maybe tugged me back out at times when I had to remind myself that “you” is really another person. I wonder what Huerta’s prose-poetic vignettes might sound like in the third person or if third is used in further work. I only mention this criticism because I think the work is strong and has great potential.

Overall really enjoyed the exploration of loss, memory, of a complicated relationship with the past. Lovely and can’t wait to see future works.

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tropico c'est à la fois un récit et de la poésie. Ce recueil a quelque chose d'un assemblage hétéroclite mais rien n'est vague et tout est nuances. Il est axé sur le souvenir du père de l'autrice, un réfugié chilien. Un texte de la traductrice, Daphné B. , ainsi qu'un extrait de conversations entre elle et Marcela Huerta complète et rend le tout encore plus intéressant à découvrir.

Je ne lis pas seulement pour me retrouver dans les écrits de quelqu'un. Je lis aussi pour aller à la rencontre des autres, apprendre des expériences qui diffèrent de la mienne. J'ai trouvé le texte El chacotero particulièrement réussi parce qu'avec seulement une page, on me fait rire et aussitôt que j'ai tourné l'autre page, on me fait pleurer.

[Beatrice Pratte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tropico reads its length with a clarity that few writers of any experience achieve. Huerta's poetry shines, especially when presented as an abstract, time-insensitive export of what she more explicitly writes on in her short prose. Lines from both hung with me for weeks after reading them, and her cadences felt far more natural than the more rigid books I had been reading at the same time.

[Valérie Rioux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un court recueil de triste et rempli de moments poétiques déchirants. Oui, on y parle du jeu vidéo Tropico et ce bout-là est bouleversant aussi.

Traduit aussi en français par Daphné B. et paru aux éditions Tryptique.

[Briana Garelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, honest and heartfelt <3

[jada alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - THESE IMAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i want more and more and more from huerta, i am in full awe. her poems have arrested me.

[Syd Lazarus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal.

[Syd Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a fine book, rather short, with numerous forms. Something that's interesting, sure. But that's
it. 3/5