New Hope Rd
Luis Correa-Díaz
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New Hope Rd (México: Círculo de Poesía, 2024) by Luis Correa-Díaz is a poetry book of fifty poems that takes the reader on a journey through time, space and memory. It’s a poetry book that explores the quiet, eventful, ordinary and extraordinary events of the everyday where the past, present, and future meet, giving hope an opportunity to survive in a time of war, decadence, pain, and tears. It’s a cultural production that reflects the hybrid cultural identity of the U.S. Hispanic soul, a wandering being of the XXI century in the southeastern states of the United States who speaks in a code-switching language that results from speaking both English and Spanish fluently. Unapologetically, the author provides this new form of communication an opportunity to thrive as an example of the natural linguistic evolution of the constant interaction of these two languages. In addition, technology in the poems becomes an extension of the human senses that allows humanity to explore not only the unseen corners of Earth, but also the magnificent secrets of the Universe. This is a poetry book on the road between A and B and C and all the possible detours, always with eyes looking around and up. Furthermore, the common spaces of the home and the car become sacred centers of creation where the television and the radio continue to survive despite or along with all the new technological advances, allowing the author to connect with world events and popular culture while exploring the rural roads of Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Tennessee. The journey from one state to another becomes a recurring theme in multiple poems, and the reader explores these spaces through the eyes of a poet who has the gift to dialogue with alive and dead beings alike. In “Old America”, the opening poem, the poetic voice declares that “…manejando/ mi autito —cohete de nombre,/ con lo cual indico la dirección/ del tiempo que prefiero— a través/ de esta old America, all kind of/ dying towns, obsérvolos”… [driving/ my dear car –rocket its name,/ with which I indicate the direction/ of time I prefer—through/ this old America, all kind of/ dying towns, I observe them…] (8). In the poem “Deers”, the poet shares: “cómo pedirles perdón a esos 7/ o más deers que he visto hoy/ en mi weekly trip back to Athens/ (lo mismo cuando voy de vuelta/ a Chapel Hill), destrozados y/ sangrantes aún en la highway” [how to apologize to these 7/ or more deers that I have seen today/ on my weekly trip back to Athens/ (the same thing happens when I return/ to Chapel Hill), destroyed and/ bleeding still on the highway] (30). Both poems make a reference to decadence and death, inviting/commanding the reader to pay a closer and loving attention to their environment while on the road and life journey. |
One important characteristic that we see in many of the poems is the use of both English and Spanish, which is central to the cultural and language identity of someone who navigates two languages daily. For this reason, New Hope Rd formally recognizes the current reality of thousands of Spanish speakers in the United States who communicate in code-switching, reflecting the linguistic evolution of the two most common languages spoken in this country as of today. Thousands of people could now see their linguistic and emotional reality represented not exclusively as an academic/political subject, but also and more so as a daily life creative game thanks to the autonomy given to the poetic voice by the author. In the poem “Ila, GA”, the first verse is in English and the second one in Spanish: “I came to say goodbye, Ila, GA,/ lo más probable es que no vuelva” [I most likely won’t come back] (71). This challenges the conventional ways of writing either in one language or another, requiring the reader to have a certain level of linguistic competence in both Spanish and English. Most importantly, Correa-Diaz’s practice here as well as in Americana-lcd (2020), for instance, needs to be understood differently than this phenomenon for the Latinx literary tradition, in his book both languages are fused and preserved at the same time, they make love to each other and do not disappear in and after the process, a less romantic and more autopoietic understanding of speaking/writing in… and/or…
Known as a leading scholar in the Digital Humanities, Dr. Luis Correa-Díaz integrates links, QR codes, and references to the latest advancements in artificial intelligence into his poems, which are converted in a meta-thinking about the role of literature at the present moment in history. These elements transform his poetry into an interactive, multisensory experience, inviting readers to use their smartphones to immerse themselves in the poem’s world and even hear the poet’s voice. Additionally, the poet addresses pressing global issues such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, alongside NASA's groundbreaking explorations with the Ingenuity spacecraft, the Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescopes. New Hope Rd is a poetry collection that takes readers on a journey through the everyday, reflecting on the extraordinary and ordinary moments that shape nowadays the complexities of the human experience. As Mexican poet Martín Rangel states on the back cover of the book: “En el tránsito hacia la vida posthumana, este libro pretende escapar del dictatorial Yo del que hablaba bell hooks rumbo a un más libre Nosotros; tomar una ‘selfie planetaria’ y usar la poesía no tanto para hacer ‘semiología/ forense de self-inflicted injuries/ sino para ser cosmólogos/ de un extravagant universe’. Poesía que, entre la página y la pantalla del teléfono, configura el algoritmo que habrá de guiar al lector a través de un presente fractalizado.”
[In the transition toward posthuman life, this book aims to escape from the dictatorial I of which bell hooks spoke towards a freer We; take a ‘planetary selfie’ and use poetry not so much to do a ‘forensic/ semiology of self-inflicted injuries/ but to be cosmologists / of an extravagant universe.’ Poetry that, between the page and the phone screen, configures the algorithm that will guide the reader through a fractalized present.]
Luis Correa-Diaz, Corresponding Member to Academia Chilena de la Lengua (Chile) and Real Academia de Ciencias, Letras y Artes de Córdoba (Spain), poet and professor of Digital Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Georgia-USA. Author of several books, articles and special dossiers. Among them: La Bandera de Chile es extranjera en su propio país. La poesía civil/insurrecta de Elvira Hernández (2025), Latin American Digital Poetics (con Scott Weintraub, 2023), Novissima verba: huellas digitales/cibernéticas en la poesía latinoamericana (2019).
New Hope Rd is a publication by Círculo de Poesía.
Known as a leading scholar in the Digital Humanities, Dr. Luis Correa-Díaz integrates links, QR codes, and references to the latest advancements in artificial intelligence into his poems, which are converted in a meta-thinking about the role of literature at the present moment in history. These elements transform his poetry into an interactive, multisensory experience, inviting readers to use their smartphones to immerse themselves in the poem’s world and even hear the poet’s voice. Additionally, the poet addresses pressing global issues such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, alongside NASA's groundbreaking explorations with the Ingenuity spacecraft, the Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescopes. New Hope Rd is a poetry collection that takes readers on a journey through the everyday, reflecting on the extraordinary and ordinary moments that shape nowadays the complexities of the human experience. As Mexican poet Martín Rangel states on the back cover of the book: “En el tránsito hacia la vida posthumana, este libro pretende escapar del dictatorial Yo del que hablaba bell hooks rumbo a un más libre Nosotros; tomar una ‘selfie planetaria’ y usar la poesía no tanto para hacer ‘semiología/ forense de self-inflicted injuries/ sino para ser cosmólogos/ de un extravagant universe’. Poesía que, entre la página y la pantalla del teléfono, configura el algoritmo que habrá de guiar al lector a través de un presente fractalizado.”
[In the transition toward posthuman life, this book aims to escape from the dictatorial I of which bell hooks spoke towards a freer We; take a ‘planetary selfie’ and use poetry not so much to do a ‘forensic/ semiology of self-inflicted injuries/ but to be cosmologists / of an extravagant universe.’ Poetry that, between the page and the phone screen, configures the algorithm that will guide the reader through a fractalized present.]
Luis Correa-Diaz, Corresponding Member to Academia Chilena de la Lengua (Chile) and Real Academia de Ciencias, Letras y Artes de Córdoba (Spain), poet and professor of Digital Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Georgia-USA. Author of several books, articles and special dossiers. Among them: La Bandera de Chile es extranjera en su propio país. La poesía civil/insurrecta de Elvira Hernández (2025), Latin American Digital Poetics (con Scott Weintraub, 2023), Novissima verba: huellas digitales/cibernéticas en la poesía latinoamericana (2019).
New Hope Rd is a publication by Círculo de Poesía.
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