Diaspora: Selected and New Poems
Frank Varela

In the poem “Autobiography”, Frank Varela explains how “Identity was never a question / of geography and language / or time in distance” and how he “was always on the outside looking in”. With vivid scenarios depicting the stages and the cultures of his upbringing, the poet invites us to scale the walls others have placed on him throughout his existence.
 
His poems take us across countries, from Puerto Rico and the homeland he yearns would claim him to Brooklyn and the assimilation he has become comfortable with. All the while, engaging from one trace of memory to the next, jumping decades and connecting the hauntings of the people who have shaped his essence.  
 
Diaspora by Frank Varela is a collection emblematic of what it feels like to be displaced, never belonging in the worlds one feels rooted to.

Frank Varela is the author of four volumes of poetry, including Serpent Underfoot (March Abrazo Press, 1993), Bitter Coffee (March Abrazo Press, 2001), Caleb’s Exile (ELF Creative Workshop, 2009), and Diaspora: Selected Poems and New Poems (Arte Publico Press, 2016).

Diaspora: Selected and New Poems is a publication by Arte Público. Click here to purchase. 

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Reviewed by
Priscilla C. Suarez
​2/16/2018

Priscilla Celina Suarez is the 2015-17 McAllen Poet Laureate and co-founder of the Gloria Anzaldúa Legacy Project. A co-author of the Texas State Library’s Bilingual Programs chapter, her work appears in such venues as ¡Juventud!: Growing up on the Border and Along the River III: Dark Voices from the Río Grande. 

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