Curandera

Overview

Featuring historic photos of the Chicano Movement in San Antonio and a new introduction, this is the 30th-anniversary edition of Carmen Tafolla’s first solo poetry collection. Having filled a cultural and linguistic void in 1983, when it was first published, this compilation showcases the poet's creation of a literary language from the natural Spanish and English code-switching of the barrios of San Antonio. Banned in Arizona along with many other multicultural books, this work celebrates bilingual and bicultural diversity and the power of individual imagination while simultaneously examining social inequities. Many poems from this book have been widely anthologized throughout the past three decades.

Reviews

“Tafolla is a pioneer of Chicana literature.”  —Ana Castillo, poet, I Ask the Impossible

"A world-class writer."  —Alex Haley, author, Roots: The Saga of an American Family

“Curandera is magic and wonder.”  —Norma E. Cantú, author, Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera

"In Tafolla's poetry, the disenfranchised speak for themselves in their own language."  —Yolanda Broyles-González, professor, University of Arizona

Author Biography

Carmen Tafolla is a professor at the University of Texas–San Antonio and the author of more than 15 books, including The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans and Sonnets and Salsa. She is the recipient of various awards, including the 2010 Américas Award, two International Latino Book Awards, and the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Book Award. Norma E. Cantú is an author, an editor, and a professor at the University of Texas–San Antonio. They both live in San Antonio, Texas.