Skip to main content

BOOK OF THE MONTH: OCELOCIHUATL BY XANATH CARAZA


Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.
― Dylan Thomas

Poetry is an act of peace. Pablo Neruda




Mouthfeel Press
April is Poetry Month and The Latina Book Club is celebrating with exciting and powerful poets that make us sit up and read and imagine.  Hence, we have chosen a book of the month that makes us do all that.  

OCELOCIHUATL by Xánath Caraza brings a lump to your throat, a tear to your eye and a sigh to your heart.  It’s a beautiful, haunting bilingual poetry collection written in vibrant imagery about a Jaguar woman – a spirit guide, if you will –  that prowls and growls at the land, at society, at herself. 

Ocelocíhuatl straddles two worlds and struggles to unite those worlds and make a place for herself.  But violence, pain and suffering – like the 43 missing Mexican students and the slain teen Michael Brown – make her sad, angry, and frustrated.  So the Jaguar Woman roams across different lands, eager to heal, desperate for peace.

Poetry should make you feel, and readers will feel a whole range of emotions as they journey alongside the courageous Ocelocíhuatl. Readers will also fall in love with the cover for it too tells a pulsating tale of journeys taken, unity sought and healing found.#



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet and short story writer. She teaches at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and presents readings and workshops in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. She is a 2015 International Book Award for Poetry winner and an Honorable Mention for Best Book of Poetry in Spanish winner. She is the author of CONJURO, and short story book LO QUE TRAE LA MAREA/ WHAT THE TIDE BRINGS by Mouthfeel Press. She writes the column, "US Latino Poets en Español". Caraza is a writer for La Bloga and for Revista Zona de Ocio, and teaches at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). She is an advisory circle member of the Con Tinta literary organization. Visit her at http://xanathcaraza.webs.com/


READ POETRY.  READ LATINO.