BLOODLINES is a reclamation of deeply embedded memory and cultural patterns. The poems work to excavate that-which-is-never-said in a staggering, endearing remake of family narrative and trauma. From nostalgic images of desert and poverty, to yearnings for the continuation of a bloodline, this collection generates a contemporary conversation of what it means to be from the Borderlands. Certain poems shower themselves with bravery, by using addresses, names, and locations, to mentioning real-life Borderland crises.
In the titular poem Bloodlines, the author writes, "I could not deny . . . This writing of remembrance". The lines warrant direct attention to the happenings of the speaker's everyday life as caused by generational wounds. By revisiting place and memory, with poems like Her Body and Broken Inglish, the poet uses reconstruction as a means to develop a world in which she never lived in, but feels is ultimately her own. Honoring the traditional symbolism of Southwestern literature, Bloodlines is a dynamic series of cultural imagery and prophecy, continually braiding life cycles with the natural flow of the river and commemorating what the river meant for a generation.