Miriam's Daughters: Jewish Latin American Women Poets
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| Not only have I carried and continue to carry the languages of my ancestors, but I have also many names. Because I was born in the United States, my mother named me Marjorie, like the character in Howard Fast's novel Marjorie Morningstar. In Chile I was called Margarita; at home Magita; and at the Hebrew school, Miriam. |
Marjorie Agosín is an award winning poet and human rights activist who has spent much of her life in exile since Pinochet rose to power in Chile. As the editor of Miriam's Daughters, she shares with us the voice of a population that makes up less than 1% of all Latin America - Jewish Women.
In this multi-lingual book, Ms. Agosín presents works in Spanish and Portuguese next to their English translations. While one of the most common images of Hispanics is their Catholic religion, Judaism traveled from Spain and Portugal just Catholicism did.
Between Spain and Latin America, Jewish Latinos have often had to hide their religion while still finding a way to build communities. As a minority and often oppressed immigrant population, we hear the authors tell their experiences of living between Portuguese and Spanish worlds while also living and worshipping in Hebrew and remembering their other ancestral languages. They tell of recent immigration from Europe and how it feels to be an immigrant in Latin America. They reflect on their loved ones lost in the holocaust and flight to a new world.
The book is divided into five sections. While all the themes are intertwined in the lives and poems of the writers, the Genealogies section starts by acknowledging the seemingly rotating travel of their families and tribes. In Illuminations, the poets share their visions of God and the mysteries of faith. The Texture of Memories delivers memories that both haunt and please. The journey that memories take from year to year, parent to child. Jerusalem brings the book full circle, with the authors remembering their first ancestral land.
This collection of poems has easy become one of my favorites. Any Latino in the United States should find their own thoughts and experiences in these poems. Much in the same way we all struggle with the preservation of our language and culture, often in the face of adversity, our Jewish members have had to do it two and three times over.
Miriam's Daughters tells all of our tales of travel, memories, family and faith through the often-ignored yet powerful multilingual voices of our Jewish Latinas.
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