Las Cruces Public Libraries is one of several recipients of the Latino Poetry – Places We Call Home grant. The project seeks to foster nationwide conversation through a groundbreaking new poetry anthology. The anthology is divided into eight themes: ancestry and identity, voice and resistance, language, first and second homes, family and community, music and performance, labor and eco-consciousness. We invite you to read the poems that reflect the following themes within the anthology and join us for Palabras y Artesanias (Words and Crafts). Each session will be a reflection and creative expression on the poetry’s theme.

Our fifth event is on the theme of Family and Community. Poetry often speaks to the bonds of family and community. How have Latino poets depicted these relationships—among children, parents, and grandparents, between intimate partners, and within wider communities, informal networks of support, and “chosen families”? What sorts of practices and rituals surrounding family and community do we find in Latino poetry, and how have poets explored the effects of migration, generational change, and other circumstances on these traditions?

PALABRAS/ WORDS 

There are a handful of featured poems to read and reflect on before the session. They can be accessed at this LINK, or come to the reference desk for a paper copy.

“In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes” by Eduardo C. Corral

“Put Attention” by Laurie Ann Guerrero

“Nani” by Alberto Ríos

Read essay by Lauro Flores

ARTESANIAS / CRAFTS 

Repujado en aluminio originated in colonial Mexico between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Many of the designs have to do with milagros, or hopes for a miracles. Many hojalatas are in the form of hands and hears symbolizing the hopes and dreams of our ancestors. The art form is a way to connect us back to the lives and perspectives of the family that came before us. As the saying goes we are our ancestors' wildest dreams!

Follow this LINK. to see a picture of this craft and the others in the series. 

This program is presented as part of Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a major public humanities initiative taking place across the nation in 2024 and 2025, directed by Library of America and funded with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.