What do you think?
Rate this book
Lima :: Limón
In her striking second collection, Natalie Scenters-Zapico sets her unflinching gaze once again on the borders of things. Lima :: Limón illuminates both the sweet and the sour of the immigrant experience, of life as a woman in the U.S. and Mexico, and of the politics of the present day. Drawing inspiration from the music of her childhood, her lyrical poems focus on the often-tested resilience of women. Scenters-Zapico writes heartbreakingly about domestic violence and its toxic duality of macho versus hembra, of masculinity versus femininity, and throws into harsh relief the all-too-normalized pain that women endure. Her sharp verse and intense anecdotes brand her poems into the reader; images like the Virgin Mary crying glass tears and a border fence that leaves never-healing scars intertwine as she stares down femicide and gang violence alike. Unflinching, Scenters-Zapico highlights the hardships and stigma immigrants face on both sides of the border, her desire to create change shining through in every line. Lima :: Limón is grounding and urgent, a collection that speaks out against violence and works toward healing.
80 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2019
13 people are currently reading
1242 people want to read
About the author
Natalie Scenters-Zapico
8 books52 followersNatalie Scenters-Zapico is from the sister cities of El Paso, Texas, U.S.A. and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México. She is the author of The Verging Cities, which won the Great Lakes Colleges' Association New Writers Award, the National Association of Chicana/o Studies Poetry Award, and was featured as a top ten debut by Poets and Writers (June 2015). A 2015 CantoMundo fellow, her poems have appeared in American Poets, The Believer, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, The Best American Poetry 2015, and more. She lives in Salt Lake City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
February 17, 2022
These poems are unflinchingly brutal, a mirror to the violence that the author aims to portray.
Tackling themes of gendered violence in latinx communities, Lima :: Limón is a case study of women and girls experiences growing up in a sexist society, where machismo is inherited and taught to both boys and girls as stereotypes to follow to the letter: girls should be pure, the perfected mirrored image of Virgin Mary (“I / want to correct all that prevents me from becoming divine, appear to every man / like a virgin apparition in the flesh.”), and boys should be tough, laying heavy hands against their "hembra" to prove their love is real -- and women expect it to be this way, wanting it to be this way because they don't know any other.
In “Mi Libro Gore” a collection of utterances in the wake of women's murder is collected in a scrapbook: "¿How long has she been dead? / ¿Tiene hijos? / ¿Was she a prostitute? / ¿Mordidas por los oídos? / ¿Puta written in blood? ^Por sus piernas?" -- but Zapico makes sure to point out "You are not your death." and, later "You are not dead." In the poem “The Women Wear Surgical Masks”, Zapico tries to recount the protests with poetry that took place in El Paso-Juárez, approximately 2008–2012, before breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging that “ This / is an unbeautiful poem—uncrafted /with sterile diction. I don’t want to turn /these women into an aesthetic. I have /failed.” In this case, poetry is not the right way to frame it. Perhaps no kind of words are.
The collection's opening poem ends with "Who taught you to hate yourself?": what follows next could be the answer to that very question. Every poem is an experience any woman, somewhere, somehow, could identify with: the need to keep quiet, to adjust to the expectation of men, to being subject to catcalling and wandering touches from strangers, to laugh about horrible experiences in order to be the "cool girl", to brush it off as meaningless.
In “I Didn’t Know You Could Buy” the female body is compared to a house, to the traffic of real estate, directly compared to the "gringos" that go into latinx neighborhoods looking for “houses they could paint blue, / just like Frida Kahlo’s.” “My landscape of curves & edges / that breaks light spectral / is not for sale, but men still knock / on rib after rib, stalking the perfect house— / the perfect shade of blue.”
Zapico uses the Spanish words "macho" and "hembra", the gendered pronouns commonly used for animals, instead of male and female, charging the poems with another layer of meaning, as if to say "in this way, in this violence, we're all animals, feral and wild". Indeed, the truly defying characteristic of this feminist collection is the fact that, despite everything, the wrongs don't come just from men. These teachings are cyclical, passed down through generations.
In these poems, the voices are of the ones that cross the border and the ones that stay behind, the stories of different vulnerabilities but all too similar experiences. Women of colour are the most subject to violence, not only in their communities but outside it, when faced with a world that is not designed to let them win, first because they are women and second because they are women of colour.
Tackling themes of gendered violence in latinx communities, Lima :: Limón is a case study of women and girls experiences growing up in a sexist society, where machismo is inherited and taught to both boys and girls as stereotypes to follow to the letter: girls should be pure, the perfected mirrored image of Virgin Mary (“I / want to correct all that prevents me from becoming divine, appear to every man / like a virgin apparition in the flesh.”), and boys should be tough, laying heavy hands against their "hembra" to prove their love is real -- and women expect it to be this way, wanting it to be this way because they don't know any other.
“Wear a red dress & let men pull at it all night. Your desire: to have your hair pulled,As a result, the cultural ramifications of such teachings make Juárez, the city the author was born, the capital of femicide. From wikipedia: “The murders of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez since 1993 have received international attention, primarily due to perceived government inaction in preventing violence against women and girls and bringing perpetrators to justice.”
to bleed, to lick your wounds like a dog in heat.”
In “Mi Libro Gore” a collection of utterances in the wake of women's murder is collected in a scrapbook: "¿How long has she been dead? / ¿Tiene hijos? / ¿Was she a prostitute? / ¿Mordidas por los oídos? / ¿Puta written in blood? ^Por sus piernas?" -- but Zapico makes sure to point out "You are not your death." and, later "You are not dead." In the poem “The Women Wear Surgical Masks”, Zapico tries to recount the protests with poetry that took place in El Paso-Juárez, approximately 2008–2012, before breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging that “ This / is an unbeautiful poem—uncrafted /with sterile diction. I don’t want to turn /these women into an aesthetic. I have /failed.” In this case, poetry is not the right way to frame it. Perhaps no kind of words are.
The collection's opening poem ends with "Who taught you to hate yourself?": what follows next could be the answer to that very question. Every poem is an experience any woman, somewhere, somehow, could identify with: the need to keep quiet, to adjust to the expectation of men, to being subject to catcalling and wandering touches from strangers, to laugh about horrible experiences in order to be the "cool girl", to brush it off as meaningless.
“I laughed because, after all, isn’t that what women do—laugh at jokes at their ownAt some point, the narrator says she doesn't care anymore, ignores all of it, the fresh lemón bruising from all the touching.
expense?”
In “I Didn’t Know You Could Buy” the female body is compared to a house, to the traffic of real estate, directly compared to the "gringos" that go into latinx neighborhoods looking for “houses they could paint blue, / just like Frida Kahlo’s.” “My landscape of curves & edges / that breaks light spectral / is not for sale, but men still knock / on rib after rib, stalking the perfect house— / the perfect shade of blue.”
Zapico uses the Spanish words "macho" and "hembra", the gendered pronouns commonly used for animals, instead of male and female, charging the poems with another layer of meaning, as if to say "in this way, in this violence, we're all animals, feral and wild". Indeed, the truly defying characteristic of this feminist collection is the fact that, despite everything, the wrongs don't come just from men. These teachings are cyclical, passed down through generations.
“Like my father did to my / mother at parties, he called me tontita. When we danced, I pressed my body / against his. He smiled & pet my head like a dog. A good hembra never speaks of / the violence of men.”In the poem “More Than One Man Has Reached Up My Skirt”, the narrator's mother says “See how lucky you are, / not to have to work / like they do?”, because she isn't selling her body on the streets. A double edged sword because in fact “I have been / muy puta, / have been called puta.” In “My Macho Takes Care of Me Good” a mother takes the side of the husband in a situation of abuse: “You married him, says my mother, / & he takes care of you good in his united estates.” In “The Hunt”, a thirteen year old recounts an experience of sexual assault, and later, in the same poem, the narrator is sorry for the internalized sexism, the ugly thoughts damaging to women she can’t help but still think of, years and years of such harmful teachings pent up inside. “I apologize to a daughter / for telling her to close her legs”. It is this duality, present throughout, that really make these poems meaningful. While poetry is often felt as autobiographical, Zapico recognizes her own internalised sexism and what a struggle it is to overcome it; “I will not apologize / for my desire to love a macho / who could crush my skull / with his bare fists.”
In these poems, the voices are of the ones that cross the border and the ones that stay behind, the stories of different vulnerabilities but all too similar experiences. Women of colour are the most subject to violence, not only in their communities but outside it, when faced with a world that is not designed to let them win, first because they are women and second because they are women of colour.
Read
January 7, 2025i need to like. lay down for a while. goddamn.
--
In an exploration of womanhood, and the ugliness that exists within that concept, Natalie Scenters-Zapico delivers a collection that is at once defiant and real. The sophomore poet explores not just womanhood, but the binary in which girls and women reside in, never allowed to live in the area between girlhood and womanhood.
The author’s usage of nursery rhymes brings back memories of childhood games and the notion of innocence, defying the expectation that only men are allowed introspection into their childhoods; only they are allowed to rely on their immaturity to go through life. Scenters-Zapico points out there is no space for a girl to experience innocence, what with how we’re continuously sexualized from the moment we’re born until after death. All of our innocence is squeezed out of us like citrus, like limes and lemons, in order to quench a man’s thirst. Women, in this collection, are wrung out and laid out to dry in this machista world.
Scenters-Zapico’s words force you to look at gendered violence in the same way immigrant women, particularly poor, undocumented Latinas, are subjected to various forms of it. There is gendered violence around us from the moment we’re born, and we’re gaslit with the notion that men do violence as a way to show their women, or hembras, their love. We’re brought up a violent manipulation of the concept love, and this collection is full of examples of it.
This book is more a gallery of la indignación that follows heartbreak, because how dare anyone take the feelings and trust that you’ve freely given them and consequently put you through hell. It’s la indignación in the face of the fetishization of pain and trauma, be they personal or generational. And it’s indignación done with respect toward the subjects without objectifying them. It doesn’t glorify but humanize, all while tackling subjects like miscarriage, domestic violence, and sexual assault. It’s not written for the white gaze just as it isn’t for the male gaze.
Lima :: Limón is a book I’ll return to and do close readings of because there’s so much meaning put into the words that you can’t read it in a superficial way. Scenters-Zapico’s words burrow themselves into your soul and you can’t help but sit with them uncomfortably until you make yourself feel comfortable. Let Natalie Scenters-Zapico enter the poetry canon forever.
TWs: graphic depiction of domestic abuse (mostly throughout the Macho :: Hembra sections), sexual assault, miscarriage, pedophilia, gendered violence, racism, white supremacist quotes (there are direct quotes said by Trump in “Notes on My Present: A Contrapuntal”), seizure, blood, wounds, femicide
An eARC was provided by the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
--
In an exploration of womanhood, and the ugliness that exists within that concept, Natalie Scenters-Zapico delivers a collection that is at once defiant and real. The sophomore poet explores not just womanhood, but the binary in which girls and women reside in, never allowed to live in the area between girlhood and womanhood.
The author’s usage of nursery rhymes brings back memories of childhood games and the notion of innocence, defying the expectation that only men are allowed introspection into their childhoods; only they are allowed to rely on their immaturity to go through life. Scenters-Zapico points out there is no space for a girl to experience innocence, what with how we’re continuously sexualized from the moment we’re born until after death. All of our innocence is squeezed out of us like citrus, like limes and lemons, in order to quench a man’s thirst. Women, in this collection, are wrung out and laid out to dry in this machista world.
Scenters-Zapico’s words force you to look at gendered violence in the same way immigrant women, particularly poor, undocumented Latinas, are subjected to various forms of it. There is gendered violence around us from the moment we’re born, and we’re gaslit with the notion that men do violence as a way to show their women, or hembras, their love. We’re brought up a violent manipulation of the concept love, and this collection is full of examples of it.
This book is more a gallery of la indignación that follows heartbreak, because how dare anyone take the feelings and trust that you’ve freely given them and consequently put you through hell. It’s la indignación in the face of the fetishization of pain and trauma, be they personal or generational. And it’s indignación done with respect toward the subjects without objectifying them. It doesn’t glorify but humanize, all while tackling subjects like miscarriage, domestic violence, and sexual assault. It’s not written for the white gaze just as it isn’t for the male gaze.
Lima :: Limón is a book I’ll return to and do close readings of because there’s so much meaning put into the words that you can’t read it in a superficial way. Scenters-Zapico’s words burrow themselves into your soul and you can’t help but sit with them uncomfortably until you make yourself feel comfortable. Let Natalie Scenters-Zapico enter the poetry canon forever.
TWs: graphic depiction of domestic abuse (mostly throughout the Macho :: Hembra sections), sexual assault, miscarriage, pedophilia, gendered violence, racism, white supremacist quotes (there are direct quotes said by Trump in “Notes on My Present: A Contrapuntal”), seizure, blood, wounds, femicide
An eARC was provided by the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
September 13, 2025
okay, i think my struggle to get into natalie scenters-zapico's body of work (beyond 3 or 4 exceptional poems) is a matter of personal taste. her collections are incredibly bleak, violence (explicit, visual, visceral) is focal more often than it's not, and machismo + patriarchy controls that violence. i understand why this deserves to be written about, and why for scenters-zapico it's so prominent in her work, but it's difficult for me to stomach, and some of the more bodily figurative language she employs just doesn't work for me.
scenters-zapico lays out a perfect thesis in the final poem of lima :: limón and it aptly describes why i find her poetry hard to enjoy:
"he has an oral fixation" and "kept" were two standouts for me. also, i am obsessed with the book cover for this collection (a feat considering how many poetry book covers suck). the poems herein are ultimately not for me, but maybe will be for you. give this a try if you're interested in work that plays with multilingualism and unpacks sexual and domestic violence.
scenters-zapico lays out a perfect thesis in the final poem of lima :: limón and it aptly describes why i find her poetry hard to enjoy:
I will not apologize / for my desire to love a macho / who could crush my skull / with his bare fists.
"he has an oral fixation" and "kept" were two standouts for me. also, i am obsessed with the book cover for this collection (a feat considering how many poetry book covers suck). the poems herein are ultimately not for me, but maybe will be for you. give this a try if you're interested in work that plays with multilingualism and unpacks sexual and domestic violence.
April 29, 2023
Notes on My Present: A Contrapuntal
I write my body, as border between
We have some bad hombres here
this rock & the absence of water.
& we’re going to get them out.
I cut myself with a scimitar,
When Mexico sends its people,
as political documentation.
they’re not sending their best.
How do you write about the violence
They’re not sending you.
of every man you’ve ever loved?
They’re sending people
Macho, you
that have lots of problems
breathe bright in the neocolony,
& they’re bringing those problems to us
a problem of Empire pulling
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing
the capitalist threads of my border.
crime. They’re rapists.
Empire: you were so sterile
Mexico’s court system [is]corrupt.
& shiny with your dead man’s coins
I want nothing to do with Mexico
& castration, your white roses
other than to build an impenetrable
& that trash bag full of a Mexican
WALL & stop them from ripping
woman’s dark hair. Empire: you
off U.S. I love the Mexican people,
made us hungry for the glint
but Mexico is not our friend.
of machismo, the dim glare
They’re killing us at the border
of marianismo. Tonight on TV,
& they’re killing us on jobs & trade.
muted montages of the largest
FIGHT! Happy #CincodeMayo!
ICE raid in Texas. I drink
The best taco bowls are made
pink champagne in a hotel bar,
in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!
& correct the pronunciation of my name.
I write my body, as border between
We have some bad hombres here
this rock & the absence of water.
& we’re going to get them out.
I cut myself with a scimitar,
When Mexico sends its people,
as political documentation.
they’re not sending their best.
How do you write about the violence
They’re not sending you.
of every man you’ve ever loved?
They’re sending people
Macho, you
that have lots of problems
breathe bright in the neocolony,
& they’re bringing those problems to us
a problem of Empire pulling
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing
the capitalist threads of my border.
crime. They’re rapists.
Empire: you were so sterile
Mexico’s court system [is]corrupt.
& shiny with your dead man’s coins
I want nothing to do with Mexico
& castration, your white roses
other than to build an impenetrable
& that trash bag full of a Mexican
WALL & stop them from ripping
woman’s dark hair. Empire: you
off U.S. I love the Mexican people,
made us hungry for the glint
but Mexico is not our friend.
of machismo, the dim glare
They’re killing us at the border
of marianismo. Tonight on TV,
& they’re killing us on jobs & trade.
muted montages of the largest
FIGHT! Happy #CincodeMayo!
ICE raid in Texas. I drink
The best taco bowls are made
pink champagne in a hotel bar,
in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!
& correct the pronunciation of my name.
April 9, 2020
i know it's only april but this is literally one of, if not the best poetry collection i've read this year. like what do i even do now......????
September 17, 2020
These poems aren't just written in minor keys: they don't even use any major chords in their progressions. I admire when artists don't hold back in portraying the world as it truly is. Machismo in Mexican culture is real, and it is pervasive.
A complaint about the Spanish, though: Multiple times we read "te vas quedar soltera" when she quotes the song A la lima y al limón. This is problematic both because the sentence is grammatically improper (use of the verb "ir" to represent future action requires the preposition "a") and because it throws off the syllable count of the line (7 syllables instead of 8) compared to the rest of the song, which has consistent meter. Considering it's a quote from a song whose lyrics you can look up online, that error shouldn't have made it through the editors in the epigraph and the multiple poems the line features in, especially because the whole collection is rooted in the shame that line of the song degradingly tries to evoke in women. Misquoting it with such an obvious grammatical mistake lowers the authenticity.
A few other Spanish errors in the collection pop up but are orthographical and not too big of a deal. I just find the one mentioned above particularly distracting.
A complaint about the Spanish, though: Multiple times we read "te vas quedar soltera" when she quotes the song A la lima y al limón. This is problematic both because the sentence is grammatically improper (use of the verb "ir" to represent future action requires the preposition "a") and because it throws off the syllable count of the line (7 syllables instead of 8) compared to the rest of the song, which has consistent meter. Considering it's a quote from a song whose lyrics you can look up online, that error shouldn't have made it through the editors in the epigraph and the multiple poems the line features in, especially because the whole collection is rooted in the shame that line of the song degradingly tries to evoke in women. Misquoting it with such an obvious grammatical mistake lowers the authenticity.
A few other Spanish errors in the collection pop up but are orthographical and not too big of a deal. I just find the one mentioned above particularly distracting.
October 17, 2020
This was just not for me.
August 13, 2020
A good hembra never speaks of the violence of men.
I've been itching to read Lima :: Limón for the longest time and I've finally gotten to pick it up... I've just got to say WOW. The way Zapico uses language and these play on words in her poetry made me melt (both as a lover of poetry and as a poet).
Not only that but the IMAGERY... THE IMAGERY IS OH SO GOOD and the integration of lyrics of songs from her childhood was just so well done. It is stunning in its sadness because it is just so brutally honest. Reading through her poetry is a mix between questioning the cultural normality of femicide and machismo while dealing with the specific theme of immigration and the border.
I was so impressed that I have no words, speechless in my awe of this brilliant piece of work.
December 20, 2018
I think I need to sit with this for a while before I write a review, but wow. This was excellent.
[I received a review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.]
[I received a review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.]
March 16, 2025
The message was powerful, especially with the focus on the toxicity of machismo in Mexican culture and how it influences the way women are treated. It's a very heavy collection of poems, with a lot of discussion around sexism, child abuse, and domestic violence. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into any of the poems.
Read
October 4, 2022“I know
how to hide bruises so the earth
won’t get jealous of lightning
produced by simple friction.
My landscape of curves & edges
that breaks light spectral
is not for sale, but men still knock
on rib after rib, stalking the perfect house—
the perfect shade of blue.”
how to hide bruises so the earth
won’t get jealous of lightning
produced by simple friction.
My landscape of curves & edges
that breaks light spectral
is not for sale, but men still knock
on rib after rib, stalking the perfect house—
the perfect shade of blue.”
August 26, 2023
4.5, truly incredible. Cannot wait to read more
May 22, 2019
Blown away by Natalie Scenters-Zapico’s use of words and images. She writes with such brutal, daring, and tender honesty. I am going to revisit this collection as much as I revisit her first collection.
Excerpt from poem “You Are a Dark Body”
“ A man / lies down in bed next to you. He swallows your dark body / of water & gives you a woman’s body, a body you’ve never known ./ As a woman, you receive sores from him & through/ the sores you breaths & despite the sores you give birth / to a child still born for lack of water.
This book reads incredibly well. All of these poems feel like they are in conversation with each other. It especially made me think of the dynamic between men and women in Latinx/ Mexican culture. I think a lot of the poems question, study, and witness that dynamic through very many different characters, scenarios, and history/ current events.
I can write more!!!! BUT JUST BUY THIS BOOK AND SUPPORT HER WORK. It is important & will always be. I want to buy this book for all the women/ femmes in my life who have survived violence.
Excerpt from poem “You Are a Dark Body”
“ A man / lies down in bed next to you. He swallows your dark body / of water & gives you a woman’s body, a body you’ve never known ./ As a woman, you receive sores from him & through/ the sores you breaths & despite the sores you give birth / to a child still born for lack of water.
This book reads incredibly well. All of these poems feel like they are in conversation with each other. It especially made me think of the dynamic between men and women in Latinx/ Mexican culture. I think a lot of the poems question, study, and witness that dynamic through very many different characters, scenarios, and history/ current events.
I can write more!!!! BUT JUST BUY THIS BOOK AND SUPPORT HER WORK. It is important & will always be. I want to buy this book for all the women/ femmes in my life who have survived violence.
June 22, 2019
A visceral and defiant poetry collection on growing up with gendered violence being normalized and the brutal path that strict gender roles in deeply patriarchal societies can take. My standout favorite of the recent Copper Canyon press ebook releases though the three I've read so far have all been excellent.
These are the stories told in my family, much more so than another recent (Latino) book I recently attempted and gave up on.
These are the stories told in my family, much more so than another recent (Latino) book I recently attempted and gave up on.
September 21, 2019
I enjoyed this collection of poetry that delves into the subjects of womanhood, gender, and cultural identity.
Though I read the ARC, I purchased the audiobook after it was published and listened to that as well. I enjoyed the book more than the audio. The narrator's heavily accented Spanish distracted me from the poems themselves.
I can't separate the two experiences and perhaps the rating suffered from it.
Though I read the ARC, I purchased the audiobook after it was published and listened to that as well. I enjoyed the book more than the audio. The narrator's heavily accented Spanish distracted me from the poems themselves.
I can't separate the two experiences and perhaps the rating suffered from it.
November 25, 2020
A poem that really broke my heart was, “The Hunt”, where a thirteen-year-old recounts an experience of sexual assault, and later, in the same poem, the narrator is sorry for the internalized sexism, the ugly thoughts damaging to women she can’t help but still think of, years and years of such harmful teachings pent up inside. “I apologize to a daughter / for telling her to close her legs.” It is this duality, present throughout, that really makes these poems meaningful. While poetry is often felt as autobiographical, Zapico recognizes her own internalized sexism and what a struggle it is to overcome it; “I will not apologize / for my desire to love a macho / who could crush my skull / with his bare fists.” This book is more a gallery of la indignación that follows heartbreak, because how dare anyone take the feelings and trust that you’ve freely given them and consequently put you through hell. It’s la indignación in the face of the fetishization of pain and trauma, be they personal or generational. And it’s indignación done with respect toward the subjects without objectifying them. It doesn’t glorify but humanize, all while tackling subjects like miscarriage, domestic violence, and sexual assault. It’s not written for the white gaze just as it isn’t for the male gaze.
Throughout her poems, I see a similar subject we have discussed in class, which is gender violence. There is gendered violence around us from the moment we’re born, and we’re gaslit with the notion that men do violence as a way to show their women, or “hembras” their love. We’re brought up a violent manipulation of the concept of love, and this collection is full of examples of it. I mean Lima overall is a case study of women and girl’s experiences growing up in a sexist society, where machismo is inherited and taught to both boys and girls as stereotypes to follow to the letter: girls should be pure, the perfected mirrored image of the Virgin Mary. She writes, “I / want to correct all that prevents me from becoming divine, appear to every man / like a virgin apparition in the flesh”, and boys should be tough, laying heavy hands against their "hembra" to prove their love is real and women expect it to be this way, wanting it to be this way because they don't know any other.
Throughout her poems, I see a similar subject we have discussed in class, which is gender violence. There is gendered violence around us from the moment we’re born, and we’re gaslit with the notion that men do violence as a way to show their women, or “hembras” their love. We’re brought up a violent manipulation of the concept of love, and this collection is full of examples of it. I mean Lima overall is a case study of women and girl’s experiences growing up in a sexist society, where machismo is inherited and taught to both boys and girls as stereotypes to follow to the letter: girls should be pure, the perfected mirrored image of the Virgin Mary. She writes, “I / want to correct all that prevents me from becoming divine, appear to every man / like a virgin apparition in the flesh”, and boys should be tough, laying heavy hands against their "hembra" to prove their love is real and women expect it to be this way, wanting it to be this way because they don't know any other.
January 3, 2025
Never has citrus given so much to literature. This collection comes with poems fiercely alive—sharply accounting for the violence of men, the ferocity against Mexican people in the United States, the hardship of motherhood in a patriarchy, and all of it radiates with an understanding of the stony world that can both glide above and dig itself into the cracks. Men arrive to so many situations with a haughty arrogance, counting an inch for a mile—whether it's a slurry compliment after coming home drunk and late or a threat bursting as a first resort the moment control slips from their hands—and Scenters-Zapico paints it for the weakness it is. Yet it is still brute force that men wield, whether in situation or by system. There have been eons of this, and women have created a world within the world to survive, connect, and grow. The women of these pages battle everyday challenges as parts of them glow and slip into the supernatural wonder of what is possible or perhaps even next. It is the woman now and she who came before her and the ancestor before them—a celebration as well as a dissection of the familial and familiar divine, found along the widening border of two countries.
September 15, 2024
"I wear a peineta & pin a mantilla to my hair
I want to be Conchita Piquer warning women
about becoming lemons.
The goal: tener alguien quien me quiera.
I want to be my mother singing me to sleep: A la lima y al limón, te vas quedar soltera.
My grandmother hated peinetas, mantillas & women who wore too much gold. She'd say this, pulling my hair tight into a bun.
She hated peinetas & mantillas:
Pero la necesidad obliga.
I don't want to be the woman whose skin dissolves into the caldos she makes for her dying parents.
That kind of woman cries alone because she has no fat husband to make her cry in a home of her own.
A la lima y al limón, tú no tienes quien te quiera. A la lima y al limón, te vas quedar soltera."
This poetry book was heavy and freeing in the feeling of recognition. It takes a piece of your soul but also fills it. Read it slowly and only if you're ready to sit in silence and absorb its truth for a while.
I want to be Conchita Piquer warning women
about becoming lemons.
The goal: tener alguien quien me quiera.
I want to be my mother singing me to sleep: A la lima y al limón, te vas quedar soltera.
My grandmother hated peinetas, mantillas & women who wore too much gold. She'd say this, pulling my hair tight into a bun.
She hated peinetas & mantillas:
Pero la necesidad obliga.
I don't want to be the woman whose skin dissolves into the caldos she makes for her dying parents.
That kind of woman cries alone because she has no fat husband to make her cry in a home of her own.
A la lima y al limón, tú no tienes quien te quiera. A la lima y al limón, te vas quedar soltera."
This poetry book was heavy and freeing in the feeling of recognition. It takes a piece of your soul but also fills it. Read it slowly and only if you're ready to sit in silence and absorb its truth for a while.
November 30, 2019
An intense and beautiful collection on gender and violence on both sides of the border. The examination of machismo and marianismo was refreshing to see, especially as a Latina reading this book. Silence is so present in gendered violence, but these poems say the difficult things even as the speaker in the poems makes difficult choices as all women in violent relationships do. I appreciated that characters in the poems always remind the speaker that she could have it worse: she could be a prostitute or one of the many women lost to femicide. Women are often the people who maintain patriarchy's hold over other women. I was particularly moved by the poems: "My Macho Takes Good Care of Me", "Aesthetic Translation", "Mi Libro Gore", "Recets en El Cajón", "Last Night I was Killed By A Man","Marianismo", and "The Hunt".
August 31, 2019
In a forceful, fierce, lyrical collection of borderlands poetry, Natalie Scenters-Zapico interrogates place, identity, womanhood, and meanings and constructions of masculinity, or, in one of several titles to appear more than once, Macho :: Hembra. The exploration is often brutal, unstinting in its depiction of violence and grief. Threads of magic run alongside the violence, and every poem is a defiance, a refusal to cede voice to those with power.
Lima :: Limón is fierce and unstinting, a borderlands poetics to carry on the tradition begun so long ago, a shoutout to the power of women in the face of violence and oppression reaching to a tradition even older. It's a magnificent work.
Lima :: Limón is fierce and unstinting, a borderlands poetics to carry on the tradition begun so long ago, a shoutout to the power of women in the face of violence and oppression reaching to a tradition even older. It's a magnificent work.
October 31, 2020
I thought this collection of poems was OK. Scenters-Zapico is interested in exploring some sort-of familiar territory, like concepts around machismo in Mexican culture, and the sort-of dichotomy between the lime and the lemon/ sweet and sour. There's some effective descriptions here, of domestic violence, etc. And some of the material, when Scenters-Zapiro works with existing forms, like folk songs or prayer, is effective. But in general, I didn't love this.
A side note: there was just enough stuff in Spanish here to really make me miss out on stuff, which means maybe 8% of the poems or less were in Spanish-- a vanishingly small part, but just enough to feel like I was missing something. But that's totally on me, and I would never say otherwise.
A side note: there was just enough stuff in Spanish here to really make me miss out on stuff, which means maybe 8% of the poems or less were in Spanish-- a vanishingly small part, but just enough to feel like I was missing something. But that's totally on me, and I would never say otherwise.
February 11, 2020
I was quite taken and quite affected by this. The violence is taut, building tension and reoccurring through women's experiences in these poems. The macho is confronted and examined through domestic violence with distance and with revenge in this lyric voice that is direct and unflinching, but beautiful and resonant. There's a lot of power in these poems. The sense of place is illuminated through the immigrant experience, the reader is entering a cultural world and a physical one, the landscape of the Texas border and the emotional space of the latina women who occupy it. It's gorgeous, it's brutal, it's ugly, it tinged with the magical, yet deeply real, too real.
August 22, 2020
“This poem, my failed / re-creation—their protest a failed resuscitation.” The violence that pervades these poems, as well as the critical lenses of their speakers (critical of the self, of the macho and of the sentimental, even of the poem), forces the reader to really look at the world they describe. The reader must consider the stratifications of harm, like layers in the ground, hardened and clarified over time. The songs we sing to each other, the caustic nature of political speech, the ways men talk to and about women, are all part of the sediment that makes this an incendiary and illuminating collection.
March 28, 2022
This book took me a long time to read— normally I inhale poetry books but this one required a lot of time to sit with, read, re-read… it is so full and every word in it is precious and holds so much value. I haven’t read a book in a while that inspired me to learn so much, to do so much of my own research, to grieve in such an intense way. The book is unapologetic in it’s truth and weaves a heartbreaking coming of age story through fascinating images and sensory language. I’ve spent so much time buried in this book unspooling more and more metaphors and images and symbols. This book made me fall back in love with reading. Highly recommend
October 3, 2019
Holy cow. This is one of the most scorching, powerful books of poetry I’ve read in awhile, and I already know it’s one I’m going to return to often. Poems of violence, gender, hope, anger, borders, cruelty and tenderness—here is the violence we do to each other laid out for us to reckon with.
Scenters-Zapico has such a talent for imagery and language that at once gently unsettles you at the same time it blasts you out of your seat. That is to say, you may return to where you were sitting before reading these poems, but the view is going to look just a little bit different.
Scenters-Zapico has such a talent for imagery and language that at once gently unsettles you at the same time it blasts you out of your seat. That is to say, you may return to where you were sitting before reading these poems, but the view is going to look just a little bit different.
March 1, 2022
"When we danced, I pressed my body against his. He smiled & pet my head like a dog. A good hombre never speaks of the violence of men."
Sommige zinnen waren ineens heel goed en raak, maar te vaak kreeg ik het idee dat het een soort trucje werd. En eigenlijk werd continu hetzelfde gezegd maar net in andere woorden. Ik had graag een iets bredere visie op de thema's gezien. Nu wordt het een beetje veel van hetzelfde af en toe.
3.5*
Sommige zinnen waren ineens heel goed en raak, maar te vaak kreeg ik het idee dat het een soort trucje werd. En eigenlijk werd continu hetzelfde gezegd maar net in andere woorden. Ik had graag een iets bredere visie op de thema's gezien. Nu wordt het een beetje veel van hetzelfde af en toe.
3.5*
June 10, 2019
While I'm hesitant to use the word, brutal comes to mind in this collection that centers on the violence done to women, and the tendency for societies to ignore it. There is urgency and immediacy to this book, which is getting much rightfully deserved attention. "I swear // I've died. I swear I was born // dead again."
February 18, 2020
Brace yourself for this one, guys. It’s searing, vicious, raw... it’s also honest and necessary. Not for the faint of heart. Not for the person who prefers to live in the imaginary bubble they’ve created for themselves. But if you want to grow, if you want to expand your worldview, your mind and heart and maybe even your soul, then this book is here waiting to help. Choose wisely.
April 22, 2020
A collection of poetry focused on the tripartite mingling and erosion and reformations of borders between gender, countries cultures and the violence endemic to all.
Scenters-zapico's voice is strong and direct in these free verse poems. there's a spoken word flow to these poems once you learn their cadence.
unsparing honest visceral poetry.
Scenters-zapico's voice is strong and direct in these free verse poems. there's a spoken word flow to these poems once you learn their cadence.
unsparing honest visceral poetry.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews