Memorias from the Beltway

<p>Memorias from the Beltway is our first FlowerSong Press joint publication and the fourth Red Salmon Press full-length book dedicated to poetry illuminating the words and verses of nascent and established Chicanx/ Latinx/Native American writers. Through our respective presses we seek to rupture the hierarchical ways traditional modes of publishing insist upon only celebrating the works of the most widely-recognized or prolific authors and marginalizing the leading voices of Chicanx/ Latinx/Native American/POC communities that are constantly innovating and creating. As Red Salmon Press we are proud that Mauricio Novoa's provocative collection centers on the Central American experience. After over two decades we are fulfilling a mandate to fully embrace that panoply of Chicanx/Latinx/Native American literary perspectives which are integral to (re)defining who and what we are.</p><p> In this work we are held at attention to listen and contend with themes of working class survivalism and ingenuity spiritual tenacity hip hop articulations and el exilio via the poems of Mauricio and his generation to disrupt our own understandings of plural Latinidad. Poems such as Happy Meals to Memorias from the Beltway encapsulate nuances about salvadore��o masculinity through imagery of everyday forms of violence and resistance marking a thread between state-sponsored insurgent street sites for these expressions. Other pieces demonstrate a quiet invocation of memory place and intergenerationality that transports us to the perennial beats of the East Coast and prayers of abuelas. Last the layers of familial strife bonds and strength depicted are a subtle ode to Mauricio's immigrant parents that is neither nostalgic nor cloying. </p><p>Twenty-five years after the publication the East of the Freeway by ra��lrsalinas Memorias from the Beltway is a much needed repuesta to the recollections which ra��l explores in another time of vast global sociopolitical transformation and popular grassroots uprisings. The intimate manner in which both Mauricio and ra��l communicate the soulfulness of our rebellion through sparse and intentional words is certainly one point of commonality. Their love of la vida cotidiana is another moment of intersection. Undoubtedly it is in these small acts of calling our existence that we persevere. Memorias from the Beltway implores us to dwell in these remembrances mourn our losses and honor the words we carve out as lifelines.</p><p> -Lilia Rosas Ph.D. Executive Director Red Salmon Arts Osten Tejaztl��n Oto��o 2020</p>