Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, in her full-length poetry manuscript Posada: Offerings of Witness & Refuge, evoked feelings whose names I searched for as a teenager whenever I entered the sanctuary of the churches. But where, in church, I never felt what I thought I was supposed to feel, there is something in Bermejo’s unrelenting voice in Posada that brought me toe-to-toe with the spirits that she references. There is something sacred about the repetition of Chavez Ravine, 1949 as an invocation of place for many of the poems in this collection. Here it is more than a ritornello or variation on a theme, but a ritual visitation that frames a history and provides a place for artifacts that hold memory.
Readers will come away from this collection having borne witness to a self-exploration, see the U.S. – Mexico Border through the eyes of a writer whose family claims home on both sides of an arbitrary line, and leave the collection knowing the meaning of the words sanctuary and refuge. Readers will also reach the end of this collection to the words, “We’re friends here. You’re safe.”
[alert type=alert-white ]Please consider making a tax-deductible donation now so we can keep publishing strong creative voices.[/alert]