For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology/Para Las Duras: Una Fenomenologia Lesbiana

by Tatiana de la Tierra

Para las duras: Una fenomonologia lesbiana / For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology, originally published in 2002, is a collection of poetry existing from and beyond the boundaries of language, sexuality, and genre. Each memory, meditation, analysis, and erotic snapshot—featured side-by-side in both English and Spanish—is overlaid with the sexual character, experimental prose, and levity signature to the work of de la tierra. As a bilingual book, For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology / Para las duras: Una fenomonologia lesbiana centers, explores, and reimagines queer Latina sexuality, opening up space for multiple interpretations and transformations. This new edition, published as the sixth Sapphic Classic from Sinister Wisdom and A Midsummer Night’s Press, features an introduction by scholars Olga García Echeverría and Maylei Blackwell, a foreword by Myriam Gurba, an essay on de la tierra’s periodicals by Sara Gregory, and a tribute to de la tierra by her mother, proving a vibrant context for contemporary engagements with de la tierra’s powerful and important work.

Genres: Poetry, Lesbian, LGBT, Queer, Erotica, Queer Studies

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[fausto · Rating 5 out of 5]

tatiana de la tierra was one of the most powerful feminist poets of this century, her work is such a beautiful chant to all lesbianas duras and sinvergüenzas :)

[E. V. Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

While there are certainly terms and sentiments in this collection that are dated and essentialist, I also found—and continue to find of the lesbian poetry of this generation—something so invigorating and powerful about these poems. A brashness, a confidence, a sexiness, a boldness, a fearlessness, a tenderness, an earnestness, an honesty. For so much of my life, I had been scared to even say the word "lesbian" out loud, let alone identify with it. And yet, here it is in print a thousand times, again, and again, and again. We owe a great deal to our forebears and ancestors and how their words have and continue to speak us into existence.*

*Though, I am also very glad that language and identity continue to evolve. Two things can be true at once, I guess.

[clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i feel like my identity is heavily intertwined with tatiana’s. a lesbian latina born in villavicencio colombia who then moved to miami florida? this book could not be more perfect for me. if only i’d read this when i was younger, it would have guided me when questioning my sexuality, identity, beliefs, morals… the perfect book.

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a soul-nurturing book, I’m not sure if I could love tatiana de la tierra any more after reading this and the tributes of those she touched.