Sánchez writes borderless in borderless times. He breaks through the ancient Mexica figure of
death and transformation, Coatlicue, to poems as pyramids, to the Sea of the Salish in the
Pacific Northwest and on to cool-rebel Pachuco dialect of the US-Mexico borderlands. He cooks
on a rotating rainbow-colored pan, he spices, he refuses to present his "papers" at the border
stop. There are nectars, harvests, the always-farmworker fields, a detention center to tend to
with resources and a poet. Open this collection - hold on, there is a "pirinola," an ever
spinning umbrella-shaped candy with a pointed tip burning colors, lights and stories that will
take you to Latinx multi-dimensional magic. A precise, moving mural, this text of visitations of
"life, precious life!" Sanchez's delights as he writes, as he tears across those borderlines,
dancing. Magnificent poetics to take home and to take you out.
Juan Felipe Herrera
Poet Laureate of the United States Emeritus
