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Two Latine Poets To Read: Leisly Ann Roman and Jose Hernandez Diaz
19 Plays24 days ago
This is the poetry celebration that validates our dual identity and mental health struggles. The moment when you find books that perfectly capture being "bad Mexican, bad American" and realize you're not alone in navigating multiple cultural spaces.
Here's what we're highlighting for Latine Heritage Month:
"Bad Mexican, Bad American" by Jose Hernandez Diaz
- Slice-of-life poetry exploring dual cultural identity through vignettes
- Perfect for anyone with "one foot in one culture, one foot in another"
- Addresses the "pocho" experience and language struggles
- Set in Los Angeles, captures Mexican-American experience authentically
- Shows how you're Mexican in America, American in Mexico - never fully fitting either space
"Living in Phases" by Leisly Ann Roman
- Dominican-American poet writing entire collection on mental health journey
- Crucial representation for Latine community where mental health is stigmatized
- Shows mental health as "fluctuating, moving, bending thing" - not linear progression
- Begins and ends with poems for her parents, connecting healing to family roots
- Incorporates Spanglish and cultural identity throughout mental health narrative
Both poets create work that reflects our experiences as children of immigrants, validating feelings of cultural displacement while celebrating the beauty of our dual identities. These collections provide representation we desperately need.
Get the Books: 📖 "Bad Mexican, Bad American" by Jose Hernandez Diaz 📖 "Living in Phases" by Leisly Ann Roman
🎧 Related Episode: The Power and Beauty of Spanglish - Because here's what these poets understand: being Chicana feels like "the one identity that really feels whole" when everything else leaves you straddling two worlds. Poetry helps us process these complex cultural experiences and find home in our authentic selves.
Subscribe. Share. Remember that our voices and experiences deserve to be celebrated in literature.
Small steps, big healing. Keep growing! ✨
Join the conversation! What Latino poets are on your reading list? DM me your recommendations on Instagram @YourCoachMari
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Send in questions: contact+podcast@marisolmoran.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Growing with Sol Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to the Growing with Sol podcast, where we explore the moments and stories that shape who we're becoming. I'm Marisol, and this is where I love to have a real conversations about growth, self-discovery, and learning to put yourself first Whether we're diving into books that change our perspective or unpacking personal experiences that teach us something new, this podcast is for women who are done playing small and ready to embrace their own journey.
00:00:32
Speaker
If you've struggled with putting everyone else first or battled self-doubt, you're in the right place. This isn't about perfection. It's about the messy, beautiful process of growing into yourself. Come grow with me.
Focus on Latina Poetry for Heritage Month
00:00:47
Speaker
In today's episode, I am talking about Latina poetry. Okay, this is the next installment in the Latina Heritage Month of like content that I am putting out, especially on the podcast.
00:00:59
Speaker
Because of that, I wanted to focus on something that is very dear to me um on multiple levels. I, like mentioned many times on this podcast, I love to read.
00:01:10
Speaker
i love literature. And within literature, I love poetry. I've always loved poetry. there i find there to be something so uniquely beautiful in the way language is utilized to create poetry in and of itself, and any type of poetry, really.
00:01:30
Speaker
and the way that you can take like the words that we speak every day and create art with it in that capacity astonishes me. So with that being said, wanted to take this time to highlight some poetry that I've read within the last year that has been written by Latina poets and essentially highlight talk about their poetry, what I've read of it at least thus far, and...
00:02:00
Speaker
essentially, you know, inspire you to either read these poets or pick up some other ones as well that you may be interested in.
Jose Hernandez Diaz's Exploration of Cultural Identity
00:02:10
Speaker
So the first one is bad Mexican, Bad American by Jose Hernandez Diaz.
00:02:16
Speaker
And if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you may have remembered me talking about this book previously, but it's one that really stuck with me. So I wanted to highlight it again here because again, if if you are...
00:02:32
Speaker
essentially a person who is you kind of have your feet like one foot in one culture and one foot in the other culture. I feel like you would relate to this anyway, but especially if you are Mexican American, you're definitely going to relate to this.
00:02:46
Speaker
I first happened upon the book actually at the LA Festival of Books about a year ago. and i remember i was in the Roman's ah tent and i i saw it there. it was The but cover's like this beautiful like blue color. So I was drawn to it because of that. And then I saw the title and I was like, ooh, that's me.
00:03:08
Speaker
Like immediately I was like, oh my God, it's me. And I had to pick it up and to see what it was about.
Navigating Mexican-American Identity
00:03:13
Speaker
And essentially, It's very aptly titled um because it is sort of talking about this, i don't know, like not not necessarily like intermingling, but it's talking about how someone who is both Mexican and American is constantly towing this line between the two cultures and having to navigate both cultures.
00:03:38
Speaker
So... Ultimately, like what that can feel like, like what what is the purpose of exploring that? Because it feels like you don't fit into either. Why constantly, especially I feel like more so as ah as a child, as a teenager, maybe even in my 20s, this is something that I thought about a lot more than I do now because I've just, I've come to peace and I've made my own conclusions about my own identity.
00:04:04
Speaker
But um definitely growing up, it's something that you thought about a lot more and maybe something that you dealt with a lot more because you're dealing with like the adults in your life and their family that is either in the U.S. and or in Mexico still.
00:04:17
Speaker
So it's a lot of like, OK, well, here in the United States, I'm Mexican. And then in Mexico, I'm American. And it's just like I'm never really fully one or the other. and it's weird.
00:04:30
Speaker
It's weird because especially if you live in the U.S., like you're constantly living within the context of being Mexican. and that's how you see yourself. Because that's also how everybody sees you.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then you go to Mexico to visit a family and they're just like, you are the American cousin. and it's just like, what why are you... why are you singling me out here, I'm also Mexican, but clearly there is little bit of a difference there.
00:04:58
Speaker
Clearly we're having different lived experiences every day.
Understanding Chicana Identity
00:05:01
Speaker
But one of the things as well that I, that this collection of poetry touches on, and I think for me highlights, um,
00:05:10
Speaker
one of the reasons why I hold the cultural identification Chicana very dear to my heart, because it is essentially like the one identity I have that I feel fully encapsulates me.
00:05:27
Speaker
it It's the one identity that really feels whole, where it's not one foot in one place and one foot in like the other place. It's solidly here, all encompassing and you know, i feel like it it describes everything so well.
00:05:47
Speaker
Additionally, um well, before I move on, um for more information about Chicano, Chicana, Chicane, and how that so specifically pertains to language, I did talk about that in last week's episode.
00:05:58
Speaker
So it'll be linked in the show notes. So go check that out if you missed it and want to hear a little bit more about what Chicanismo is and how that relates to language. So I'll link that down below.
00:06:09
Speaker
um But additionally, and even more so with this book, um it essentially is written in like, I mean, obviously poetry, but each poem is like, is almost like a vignette.
00:06:23
Speaker
And it's, it's like slice of life poetry where you are with the speaker of the poem experiencing something and or the speaker telling you something like telling you a story.
00:06:35
Speaker
And from there, some of it is very like on the nose, like very explicit. Like this is what I was experiencing in relation to my culture, my culture, my cultural identities and how that may have been interacting with the greater world around me.
00:06:50
Speaker
Sometimes it's very like clear. And then other times there are these poems where it's super slice of life and you're just like, how does how does this how does relate? And you have to think about it and you have to sit with it.
Cultural Identity in Poetry
00:07:02
Speaker
But also like, I think in those, it's almost like in the way the speaker is is telling the story or recounting the experience that maybe there's a way that the language is being used, the way that the speaker is speaking that feels very, como que es muy Mexican-American, you know? like Like, I get it. It also is in Los Angeles. So, like, I'm i'm from also Los Angeles. So, I'm just like, I get it even more.
00:07:34
Speaker
But it's one of those things where like when you're, if you're like me and you are analyzing as you're reading, you that your brain is constantly working. You're not just accepting the story as it is necessarily at first, maybe.
00:07:47
Speaker
So, you know, it makes you think a little bit, but I really appreciated how it explored this divide in cultural identities and also what can feel like opposing identities sometimes through these vignettes and like slices of life type of poems.
00:08:07
Speaker
Additionally, as somebody who did study anthropology, I find that approach to this topic to be so beautiful and compelling because, well, a compelling way to explore cultural identity.
00:08:22
Speaker
Because one of the one of the things about culture in and of itself is that often culture is the thing that you don't even think about.
00:08:33
Speaker
Like culture is just like, well, this is just how it is. Like, actually this is just what we do. And that's culture. Like, so as somebody who has, like, studied culture, it's like, well, how how is it that, you know, people are just living?
00:08:49
Speaker
You know? Because it can – honestly, i think that there are a lot of things about just human beings in general and, like, the different cultures we all have that we have so much more in common than we do and like, not in common – But that's like a whole other thing.
00:09:03
Speaker
But when it comes to like studying culture, it's very much the like the things you're not even realizing that you're doing that is potentially very integral to your cultural identity. Until you stop to think about it, you know?
00:09:15
Speaker
But also the the collection of poems, especially pertaining to like the topic of last week of Spanglish and culture, this also explores language. It uses the word pocho, which pocho essentially is someone who is Latino, but specifically like Mexican, and Mexican-American who doesn't speak Spanish.
00:09:34
Speaker
It's... It's a very negative thing. It's viewed as a negative thing anyway. It's like meant to be an insult when it's utilized. I think there has been like ah some like reclaiming of it a little bit.
00:09:45
Speaker
I think maybe previously, previous generations, because I think currently, um current generation would be using like No Sabo instead of saying Pocho. But that is something that is brought up in this collection as well, which...
The 'Pocho' Experience and Language
00:09:58
Speaker
I think it's one of those things that as a Mexican-American that we can't get away from, that we always kind of have to discuss. And I have heard individuals who are like other diaspora, like ah individuals who are like from other cultures who are like maybe first or second generation who also talk about like not being able to like speak the language of like their mother, their father, their grandparents.
00:10:27
Speaker
So I don't think it's uniquely Mexican, but I do think it is an immigrant experience of having that like language there. Anyway, I love that it was ah discussed and touched on in this collection as well.
Leslie Ann Roman on Mental Health and Culture
00:10:41
Speaker
The other poet that I want to be highlighting is actually a poet that I've had on the podcast. So I will be linking that episode as well in case you never got to see it. But it is Leslie Ann, forgive me. It is Leslie Ann Roman um and her work is Living in Phases.
00:10:59
Speaker
This book is actually a little bit of a a a switch up. It's different in the topic and because it is focusing on mental health. And I think that, especially within the Latino community, it is something for us to really highlight. um Because so many of us talk about how we may have struggled with mental health, but didn't really have...
00:11:27
Speaker
the support that we needed, um whether that be professionally or even within our own families. Maybe it was like criticized or downplayed or what have you, you know?
00:11:40
Speaker
So to have... a Latina poet, writing an entire collection focused on mental health and mental health journey throughout, you know, one's life and how mental health can be this fluctuating, moving, sort of bending thing is incredibly important.
00:12:01
Speaker
And I think that it gives representation to so many of us who need who have struggled with our mental health in varying, you know, different capacities. I think that with this particular collection of of poetry, i found it to be very compelling how it went from and theme talking about themes of despair, about hopelessness, um where it starts off in this like dark place, sometimes confused place, and then it goes to being a little bit more of like of a fighter. like You're fighting against, you're resisting against this like hopelessness, this despair, and you're finding this determination to
00:12:42
Speaker
have some sort of control or to have some sort of, or some semblance of like a healthy mental health. And then ultimately, you know, to seeing beauty in life again and and how it also does show within that journey, how it's not just like a straight shot, you know, that you're going to get there. Like it that has its ups and its downs, the fluctuations, like I mentioned earlier.
00:13:05
Speaker
So again, absolutely wonderful in terms of how it does incorporate the, Latina part of it all. It does incorporate some Spanglish, which again, like I mentioned last time in last week's episode, Spanglish is very important.
00:13:21
Speaker
And, you know, Leslie is Dominicana, so different cultural background in terms of that regard. and But again, utilizing a little bit of Spanish in this collection as well. She also begins and ends the collection with poems meant for her parents Which, again, i think is beautiful, especially when it comes to so many of us who may not have had that support that we needed from our families when it comes to mental health.
Mental Health in the Latino Community
00:13:50
Speaker
And being able to see that representation again where we're talking about a mental health journey, but also connecting it back to our roots, connecting it back to our parents, and how... they were there to help us out or were there to support us. And maybe maybe for some of us, it wasn't exactly the kind of support that we needed, but it was what they were able to give, even if it was imperfect.
00:14:14
Speaker
So again, i want to highlight this because we have a poet here who is Latina, who is writing about mental health, the strolls of it. She is the daughter of immigrants. She's Dominican American and highlighting that as well. And again, so often our our communities have mental health as like this stigmatized thing where seeking help in and of itself can be stigmatized.
00:14:40
Speaker
So having this this reference, this work, this representation, i think could it even potentially be beneficial for somebody within our Latina community who might need to see this in order to feel a little less alone.
Book Recommendations and Podcast Engagement
00:14:58
Speaker
Ultimately, for both of these books, if you have not read them, I highly, highly recommend that you do. Again, i will link them in the show notes. For Jose Hernandez Diaz, he does have more works. I, at this point, have yet to read them at the time of this recording, but I do plan on reading his other works as well.
00:15:16
Speaker
So definitely check out the rest of his works if you've read this one. As for Leslie, she currently only has the one book. So hopefully, you know, we are over here patiently waiting for her to come out with her second one.
00:15:27
Speaker
And I know that when she does, we're all going to be very excited. I'm definitely going to be excited. So is my mom for her to come out with that. um But until then, check out her latest work, which is Living in Phases.
00:15:40
Speaker
If you made it this far, I definitely appreciate you. Thank you for tuning in to the Growing With Soul podcast. If this episode resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, give it a review, give it a like, because all of that definitely helps to grow our community and get the word out about the podcast.
00:15:58
Speaker
If you are looking for support in your own journey, if you are looking for any kind of accountability, any kind of maybe sounding board, I am currently accepting clients. So if you would like to work with me, you could schedule your very own discovery call through the link in the show notes.
00:16:15
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing.