Lisa Alvarado is a journalist, poet, performer, and installation artist. Her first novel, Sister Chicas (written
with Ann Hagman Cardinal and Jane Alberdeston) was bought by Penguin/NAL, and released in April
2006. Sister Chicas is a coming of age story concerning the lives of three young Latinas living in Chicago.
Sister Chicas won 2nd place Best First Novel in English (Latino Literacy Now/2007). Her book of poetry,
Raw Silk Suture, is the newest release by Floricanto Press, and was reviewed by Rigoberto Gonzalez.
Lisa is the founder of La Onda Negra Press, and is the author of Reclamo and The Housekeeper’s Diary,
originally a book of poetry and now a one-woman performance, and is the recipient of grants from the
Department of Cultural Affairs, The NEA, and the Ragdale Foundation. Lisa has also completed an
ambitious trilogy of performance pieces, REM/Memory, Bury The Bones and Resurgam, whose themes are the culture of violence, popular culture and personal redemption.
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Reclamation
In this dream,
I am whole.
I am no longer
saving other people’s stories,
scavenging their words;
sifting thru their remains.
In this dream,
my fingers run
thru Frida’s hair.
In this hair, I plait
dark flowers
the color of blood.
She tells me
the jaguar comes
to bring me power.
The medicine
to end this pain,
the food for this hunger.
In this dream,
I have made magic
from the mud of the Rio Grande.
Wrapped in corridas and ranchero music;
are spells and incantations
to undo
the age of forgetfulness
and indoctrination.
In this dream,
I have a lover
whose face is stone;
ancient as a temple marker.
His mouth is full,
his eyes half closed.
He whispers:
“Come to me, mi India,
mi pequeña perdida.
Remember who you are
Remember who you are.”
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