We read Lorna Dee Cervantes’ “Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway” in class and I was actually really into it. I’ve never gotten the chance to read her poetry before so I picked up a copy of Emplumada where “Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway” comes and flipped through and found other poems that describe all sorts of different coming of age moments. So, yep, I’m doing another book review.

Emplumada is divided up into three sections of poems. I think that the first section had poems that touched on the idea of coming-of-age, and they are tied into all sorts of different ideas that we covered in the different books we read in class. Cervantes points out class difference, racial and structural inequality, issues of gender and sexuality, and this is just in the first section of the book.

Lots: I

The Ally

He told her
shut up and die.
The bed of shurbs
in the vacant lot
listened and filled
the fog with their
“Tsk, tsk.”
She was so young,
only two years
more than a child.
She felt the flex
of his arm before
he touched her,
the wind of his fist
before he hit her.
But it was the glint
of steel at her throat
that cut through
to her voice.
She would not be
silent and still.
She would live,
arrogantly,
having wrestled
her death
and won.

This poem in particular reminds me of a few things that we’ve read in class. To begin with the obvious, this poem is rather violent. Whoever the “she” is in this poem, she had to deal with a pretty dramatic situation. The violence totally relates back to the nightmarish stuff we read from Josie Méndez-Negrete, Alice Bag, and Carla Trujillo. But I think this narrative sounds a lot like the vignette “Red Clowns” in House on Mango Street. It reads in the same manner as “Red Clowns” because we know that there is some type of assault that is taking place here, but it’s not that explicitly stated. This poem is definitely more explicit, but I think a connection can be drawn. The next poem in the series, “Lots II” actually makes it clear that this was an act of sexual violence.

The last line of this poem I think is the best part. “She would live/ arrogantly,/ having wrestled/ her death/ and won.” It ties into this overarching theme that we have been exposed to through the readings. These women are all exerting their own agency, they are pushing past cultural expectations, they are experiencing coming-of-age moments that are rather traumatic, but they are not rolling over and excepting defeat. These are all really impressive stories of strong, passionate women that are faced with adversity, but certainly overcome it all. Emplumada is another example of a coming of age tale that is not ideal, but eventually the woman overcomes the struggles. The poems in the collection are written from LDC’s own life so this is another example of personal narrative and I think this shows just how significant it is to look at the Chicana and Latina coming-of-age narrative.

Que viva la mujer.

Cervantes, Lorna Dee. Emplumada. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1981. Print.