POET

Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954 - )

BIOGRAPHY

Through her writings, Chicana poet Lorna Dee Cervantes evokes the cultural clash that Americans of Mexican descent frequently face. Born in San Francisco, Cervantes' "maternal Mexican ancestors intermarried with the Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara, California, area, and her paternal ancestry is Tarascan Indian from Michoacan, Mexico," reported Roberta Fernandez in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Cervantes and her mother and brother moved in to her grandmother's San Jose, California, home around 1959, when her parents divorced. "As a child she discovered the world of books in the houses which her mother cleaned," noted Fernandez. She became familiar with Shakespeare, Byron, Keats, and Shelley. By the age of fifteen she had compiled her first collection of poetry. In 1974 she traveled to Mexico City with her brother, who played with the Theater of the People of San Jose at the Quinto Festival de los Teatros Chicanos. At the last moment, Cervantes was asked to participate by reading some of her poetry. She chose to read a portion of "Refugee Ship," a poem "which renders the Chicano dilemma of not belonging to either the American or the Mexican culture," remarked Fernandez. This reading received much attention—appearing in a Mexican newspaper, as well as other journals and review. The poem was later included in her award winning poetry collection debut, Emplumada.

"Emplumada is a collection of bilingual free verse in simple diction—a glossary of Spanish terms is included—that paints strong visual images and diverse moods," described Lynn MacGregor in Contemporary Women Poets. It includes verses of mourning, acceptance, and renewal and offers poignant commentary on the static roles of class and sex, especially among Hispanics. Characterized by their simplicity of language and boldness of imagery, the "poems in Emplumada form a tightly knit unit which shows readers the environment into which the poet was torn, the social realities against which she must struggle, and the resolutions she finds for these conflicts," said Fernandez. "Written in a controlled language and with brilliant imagery, Emplumada is the work of a poet who is on her way to becoming a major voice in American literature." Emplumada has earned considerable critical acclaim; and in 1982 it won the American Book Award.

"Emplumada is divided into three sections, each depending on the other two for their full context," explained Fernandez. "The first section deals with the social environment that has been given to Cervantes and with the choices that she and others make about the pattern of their lives. . . . [The poems of section 2] show the poet's harmonious relationship with the world of nature. . . [and later] focus on deprivation and contrast. . . . Resolution from the various losses the poet has articulated is finally achieved in the . . . last poem of section 2." In section 3, stated Fernandez, "Cervantes is no longer concerned with what she does not have; instead, she enters a harmonious state of being in which dreams, love, and nature abound, for she is now in a completely new cycle of life."

Following Emplumada's publication, Cervantes' life was greatly transformed when her mother was brutally killed in 1982. This incident, and Cervantes' subsequent mourning and rebuilding of her life, affected her next work, From the Cables of Genocide: Poems of Love and Hunger. "Like Cervantes' first book, From the Cables of Genocide: Poems of Love and Hunger combines concrete imagery with theoretical abstraction," summarized MacGregor. "Here the poet's style is more complex, a result, perhaps, of coping with the violent death of her mother several years before. . . . Stream-of-consciousness passages abound, interwoven with almost surreal imagery. Spanish words now stand on their own, unbuoyed by translation. The poetic voice is stronger, more self-assured, more confident. Love and hunger, genocide, injustice, and intercommunication are the cables binding together the poet's reflections upon women's roles, Native American history, and minority culture." "Again the volume ends optimistically," added MacGregor, "Section three is composed of clear, more concise, more structured lyrics that express the ways love is grounded—cabled—to the destructive tendencies, as well as to those inexhaustible forces that affirm life."

CAREER

Founder and editor in chief of Mango Publications (publishes Mango, a literary review of works by Chicano writers), San Jose, CA; instructor of creative writing at University of Colorado, Boulder; writer. Founded literary magazine Red Dirt; actively involved in the American Indian and Chicano movements since the 1970s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emplumada (poems), University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1981.
From the Cables of Genocide: Poems of Love and Hunger, Arte Publico Press (Houston, TX), 1991.
Drive: The First Quartet, Wings Press (San Antonio, TX), 2006.

Also author of unpublished poetry collection "Bird Ave," and recording An Evening of Chicano Poetry, 1986. Editor of literary reviews Mango and Red Dirt. Contributor of poems to magazines, including Samisdat, Que tal?, London Meadow Quarterly, and Revista Chicano-Riquena.