Always Rebellious/Cimarroneando: Selected Poems by Georgina Herrera in Bloomington, MN

Poetry. African & African American Studies. Latino/Latina Studies. Women's Studies. Translated from the Spanish by María Rodríguez-Alcalá, Juanamaría Cordones-Cook, and Alexander Cordones Cook. Compiled by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook and edited by Sara E. Cooper. Winner of the 2016 International Latino Book Award for Best Bilingual Poetry Book. This bilingual volume of poetry (with DVD) introduces the unique voice of Cuban writer Georgina Herrera, whose poetry is inspired by her African heritage. Eliseo Diego calls Herrera's work poetry of origin, pain, heartbreak, and consolation. Herrera manages to transform her pain into central aesthetic components of her work, which point to a legacy of sorrow and sacrifice. Though she indeed has suffered, Georgina Herrera possesses courage, energy, and a penetrating intelligence accompanied by a profound sense of dignity and an age-old wisdom that enable her to "take to the hills" in order to go on and tell us the truths of her cultural memory, of her soul, and of her vast experience accumulated over 80 years full of anxiety, exclusion, violence, and discrimination. At the end, her self- definition is of dignity and empowerment, challenging the representation imposed upon black women.