This is a powerful collection of poems that force you to think about colonialism, protests, and our place in a global society. I appreciate that this anthology includes poems and perspectives from many different identities. I think the placement and flow of the poems was expertly done, and I applaud the editor. This is an anthology with so many gems and great moments, and it's a must-read!

I couldn't have read this poetry collection at a better time. With the Black Lives Matter movement, we see the world fight back against injustice. This poetry collection is doing the same, it argues against all forms of inequality. The poems are raw, and full of pain and anger. They're an embodiment of hope, change, desperation, feminism, strength and 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳. The poems are fiercely powerful, and for that reason I recommend this to everyone.

A raw, moving, yet fulfilling collection of poems created to feed the soul. Full of power and promise, these poems incite the reader to join in the Movement towards a better nation, world, country.

This was an astonishing collection of poetry! I could only read the translations and found the editor's notes to be very useful. These poems are full of powerful Latin American voices. Their resistance against injustices rocked some worlds at the time. Very timely for all of the events that are currently happening now...esp. in the U.S.
I enjoyed reading all backgrounds of the poets .

This is a must have for any poetry collection.

Big thanks to #NetGalley and Tin House for providing me with an e-ARC.

An excellent collection of poems, mostly originally in Spanish, on topics including feminism, politics, colonialism, and other important issues. I appreciated the translator's notes. Unfortunately, the formatting for Kindle is terrible and makes this almost impossible to read.

Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution edited by Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja is published by W. W. Norton and Company's Tin House.  Eisner spent many years backpacking through Latin America, focused on experiential learning, especially in Chile, where he translated Neruda on a rustic ranch near the coast. He has published NERUDA: The Biography of a Poet. Escaja is Distinguished Professor of Romance Languages and Gender & Women's Studies, and Director of the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Program at the University of Vermont.

Latin America has historically been a region of violence.  From the bloody colonization, wars of independence, American occupations, coups, juntas, and outside interference peace and prosperity elude these rich lands.   It is a place of walls -- to control people, to bury people, as a backdrop for firing squads, and as prisons.  The walls, however, also became the billboards of resistance with messages of hope and rebellion.  Julia Alvarez provides this insight in her introduction to the collection.  Alvarez is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist who sets the stage for the poetry with her moving words.  

The poets come from a variety of countries, many of them in the headlines in the 1970s and 1980s.  Chile (Pinochet), El Salvador (Sandinistas), Panama (Ortega), Nicaragua (Contras and Somoza), and the list goes on with no country experiencing a free and open society.  Topics consist of poverty and unequal wealth distribution inside the country and from the north. For example, Jose Leonel Rugama compares the cost of the Apollo program to the starvation in Nicaragua -- "Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the moon." The poems also capture the violence:

If, one day, on your street corner, death comes to you as a stray
bullet; if death grabs you from behind and kisses you on the
back of your neck with its tooth of lead;
Carlos Aguasaco

Latin America is a land of exceptional beauty, but a great deal has been ruined.  From Haiti to the Amazon forests, governments either allow the destruction or actively take part in the rape of the land.  There is a call for nature, and a cleaner life in the poetry in Ernest Pepin's "This is my Country Rising." 

At the end of the collection, each poet is given a paragraph biography.  The many translators are also given individual biographies, including their academic and published works.  An impressive collection of Latin American poetry with a theme that many today can still embrace. 

Available: 15 September 2020

This was a very moving collection of poetry which had you rereading sections as well as needing to think it over. Th notes about the background were useful as was the poems in their original language. I could only read the translations but could imagine how useful these would be in an advanced modern languages class.
Very moving!

Phenomenal. These poems were so moving. I've got so many highlighted passages and reading over the passages aloud are so powerful.
I love the notes that are included about specific poems and their authors. I also really enjoyed reading about all of the poets after reading their work. It is amazing to see how many awards were given out and heart wrenching to read about some of their fates. Many of these poets were (or are) such inspiring revolutionaries. I love that it is all inclusive and intersectional as well, no voice is not heard in Resistencia.
Excited to use some of these poems and mini biographies in my social studies classes. They will fit topics of identity and culture, as well as units on colonialism and revolution as primary sources very well.

I cannot remember the last time when a poem reduced me to tears but this collection had one such poem. Protest poetry from Latin America translated by some of the top translators and each poem is also printed in the original language it was translated from. Extensive notes on the poets, the translators make this an absolute must-have. Those poems are full of energy, resistance against injustice. It’s quite simply amazing and a huge credit to @tin_house for publishing such a brilliant collection. Top. Release in September. Highly recommend.

This is a collection of poems filled with many Latin American, powerful, raw voices. Every pause and every word was written with purpose. I think it is important to take note of who wrote this poem and when. I think that is just as powerful as the actual poem. Overall, I do not think anyone should skip out on this collection.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Tin House for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Per request from the publisher, a full review of this book will be published within two weeks of publication date on September 2nd on armedwithabook.com .

Overall, this book is a beautiful tapestry of many voices within Latin America with the poems in their original languages alongside the English translation. Poems of resilience, desperation, resistance, and hope highlight the nuances that various people groups faced throughout a long history of colonization.

"Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution" is an absolutely incredible collection of poetry rooted in themes of resistance, justice, equity, and representation. There is a diverse selection of authors included in this anthology, and the poems are arranged in chronological order based on when the poet was born. There are poets from all over Central and South America, DR, Martinique, and French Guinea. The chronology helps bolster the narrative arc by providing some historical context, and also highlights the different events and challenges - and revolutions - happening contemporaneously in different parts of the world.

I hope we start seeing more and more collections like this presented in the poets' native languages (in this case, Spanish and French primarily, I believe) in addition to a translation (also, in this case, English). It will help allow own-voices readers to digest and reflect on these poems in a much more meaningful way, and that's very important. The messages of these poems are, for better or worse, timeless. The themes continue to be relevant and inspiring, and these works demonstrate that to love your country, your ancestors, your community, yourself is to resist forces, systems, and leaders whose main goal is to oppress, marginalize, and erase entire groups of people.

Pablo Neruda's (Chile) "I Explain Some Things/Explico algunas cosas," "I Was My Own Route/Yo misma fui mi ruta" by Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), and "Hegel in the Caribbean/Hegel aux Caraibes" by René Depestre (Haiti) were particular standouts for me, but really each of them can stand on its own as a powerful call to action and a reflection on the poet's own experiences, a processing of what their families and communities have endured, and what their futures will look like. Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja did a remarkable job compiling this collection - with works by so many different poets and writers, it is a true feat that they managed to curate and defend such a coherent, meaningful narrative. And, as many folx will be excited to hear, the introduction was written by Julia Alvarez!

This is an anthology I don't think anyone should miss. I know I cannot wait to add a physical copy to my bookshelves and will use it as conversation starters with my kids, friends, and family. I hope this work is taught to youth around the world as so many communities fight for equity, for justice, and for human rights.

Thank you immensely to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of "Resistancia: Poems of Protest and Revolution."

Powerful and fiercely poetry collection written by Latin American Poets past and present. There's an amazing introduction by Julia Alvarez. These literary voices explores themes of Queer, ecological, feminist, indigenous, and Urban. Each poem is written in Spanish along with an English Translation. Resistencia is a must read for fans of Poetry with a purpose. This deep poetry collection comes out on September 15 by Tin House. I love the design of the cover is amazingly powerful. Thanks to Netgalley and Tin House books for the E-ARC.

As I arrived at the end of the opening poem in "Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution," Gabriela Mistral's riveting "Tiny Feet," I knew that I was in for an unforgettable journey with this remarkably vibrant and fiercely inspired collection representing poets from every Latin American country grappling with identity, place, and belonging in ways that ask difficult questions and offer no easy answers.

After a powerful introduction by Julia Alvarez, "Resistencia" fearlessly brings to life poetry from past literary icons and exciting new voices exploring feminist, queer, ecological, indigenous, and urban themes alongside the expected rages against imperialism, dictatorships, and economic inequality. As I arrived at the end of the collection, Javier Zamora's "To President-Elect," I lamented the end of a collection that felt so immersive yet seemed to end so quickly.

"Resistencia" includes each poem in its original language along with an English translation, the translations themselves an epic work of art adding depth of meaning and feeling to this remarkable collection. The translators include US Poet Laureate emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera among many others, their efforts bringing many of these poems to English-speaking readers for the very first time.

"Resistencia" is a particularly riveting read at a time when nearly the entire United States is forced to confront institutionalized racism and racial injustice. These issues, even those written years ago, are still ever-present and the words here, though representing life in other lands, ring as true to this day.

"Resistencia" brings us contemporary voices such as Colombian poet Carlos Aguasaco and the remarkable Gioconda Belli, a Nicaraguan poet whose poetry is both politically inspired yet immersed in both feminism and the erotic, while also bringing us the stunning and still resonant work of Gabriela Mistral and the familiar name of Pablo Neruda among many others.

There are others, so many others, that it would be nearly impossible to name them all or to even choose a handful of favorite pieces among this stunning collection.

I ached with Mistral's "Tiny Feet,' here called "Little Feet," while being deeply moved by Cesar Vallejo's "Mass," Alfonsina Storni's "You Want Me White," MIguel Otero Silva's mesmerizing "Sowing," Raquel Verdesoto De Romo Davila's "The Rebel Word," and Mario Benedetti's "The South Also Exists."

I felt lament alongside Rosario Castellanos' "Silence Near an Ancient Stone," wept with Raquel Jodorowsky's "Here We Are," and shuddered with a faint familiarity with Roberto Sosa's "The Poor."

Ana Maria Rodas's "I Know" is gut-level poetry, her "I'll never be more than a warrior for love" lingering in my heart and in my mind even now.

There's more. There's so many more. The poetry in "Resistencia" longs to be read and longs to be spoken aloud. These are words of vibrance and importance and liberation demanding not just coffee nook consumption but a rebellious coming to life.

Edited by Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja, "Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution" is a must-read for those who embrace the power of poetry and the written word to change the world because, indeed, many of the poets in this collection changed their worlds and, in some cases, even gave their lives to speak difficult truths and to empower their people.

Slated for a September 15, 2020 release by Tin House, "Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution" is a timely and vital collection of poetry honoring the history of Latin American poetry and the written word as resistance, protest, revolution, and hope.