Promises of gold

Promises of gold Promesas de oro

José Olivarez

Book - 2023

"A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love-self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural-is birthed, shaped, and complicated by the invisible forces of gender, capitalism, religion, migration, and so on. Written in English and combined with a Spanish translation by poet David Ruano, Promises of Gold explores many forms of love and how "a promise made isn't always a promise kept," as Olivarez grapples with the contradictions of the American Dream laying bare the ways in which "love is complicated by forces larger than our hearts.""--

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Subjects
Olivarez, José > Translations into Spanish.
Love > Poetry.
American Dream > Poetry.
Poetry.
Translations.
Upside-down books.
Bilingual books.
Genres
Poetry
Translations
Upside-down books
Bilingual books
Published
New York : Henry Holt and Company 2023.
Language
English
Spanish
Main Author
José Olivarez (author, -)
Other Authors
David Ruano González (translator)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Poetry collection in English and translation into Spanish, bound tête-bêche.
Physical Description
xvi, 141, 2, 141, xvi pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781250878496
  • Author's Note
  • Translator's Note
  • I. Folk Tales
  • 1. Tradition
  • 2. Folk
  • 3. Love Poem Beginning with Yellow Cab
  • 4. Wealth
  • II. Ojalá Ojalá Ojalá
  • 1. Ode to Tortillas
  • 2. Nation of Domination
  • 3. In the Dream
  • 4. Bulls v. Suns, 1993
  • 5. Another Cal City Poem
  • 6. Ojalá: My Homie
  • 7. Upward Mobility
  • 8. Regret or My Dad Says Love
  • 9. Black & Mild
  • 10. River Oaks Mall
  • III. Gold
  • 1. Pedro Explains Magical Realism
  • 2. Chosen
  • 3. Fathers
  • 4. An Almost Sonnet for My Mom's Almost Life
  • 5. Poem with Corpse Flowers & No Corpses
  • 6. It's Only Day Whatever of the Quarantine & I'm Already Daydreaming about Robbing Rich People
  • 7. Poem with a Little Less Aggression
  • 8. Maybach Music
  • 9. Card Declined
  • 10. Middle Class in this MF
  • 11. Canelo Álvarez is the Champ
  • 12. Bad Mexican Sonnet
  • 13. Poem Where No One is Deported
  • IV. Untranslatable
  • 1. American Tragedy
  • 2. Cal City Winter
  • 3. On the Signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement
  • 4. Ojalá: Me & My Guys
  • 5. Poetry is Not Therapy
  • 6. Before We Got Comfortable Saying Love, We Dapped
  • 7. Ojalá: I Hate Heartbreak
  • 8. Haram
  • 9. Healing
  • 10. More, Please
  • 11. Two Truths & A Lie
  • V. Receding
  • 1. Pedro Gets Asked about His Big Brother
  • 2. Happening Sonnet
  • 3. Authenticity
  • 4. Loyalty
  • 5. Poem Where I Learn to Eat Escargot
  • 6. Some Words Look Nice Until You try Them On
  • 7. Wherever I'm at that Land is Chicago
  • VI. Ojalá Ojalá Ojalá
  • 1. Nate Calls Me Soft
  • 2. Love Poem (Feat. Chani Nicholas)
  • 3. All the Names We Say Because We Don't Say Love
  • 4. Cal City Love Poem
  • 5. Most
  • 6. Mercedes Says She Prefers the Word "Discoteca" to the Word "Club"
  • 7. February & My Love is in Another State
  • 8. Ugly
  • VII. God
  • 1. Origin Story
  • 2. In Calumet City
  • 3. Now I'm Bologna
  • 4. My Sociology
  • 5. No Time to Wait
  • 6. Mercedes Says Hyacinths Look Like Little Firework Shows
  • 7. Miracle
  • 8. Ruben's Poem
  • VIII. Before Monday Arrives Like a Fist
  • 1. ARS Poetica
  • 2. Eviction Notice
  • 3. Moonshine
  • 4. Llorar
  • 5. United Enemies
  • 6. Harlem Snapshot
  • 7. Faq
  • 8. Sunday Love
  • IX. Glory
  • 1. Between US & Liberation
  • 2. Escargot
  • 3. Eating Taco Bell with Mexicans
  • 4. Maybe God is Mexican
  • 5. It's True
  • 6. Despecho Hour at the Casa Azul Restaurante Y Cantina
  • 7. Hopeful Cal City Poem
  • 8. Mexican Heaven ("the mexicans said no thank you to heaven-")
  • X. Glory
  • 1. Perder
  • 2. Inspiration
  • 3. I Walk into the Ocean
  • 4. Roses & Lilies
  • 5. Justice is for the Living
  • 6. Mexican Heaven ("forget heaven & its promises of gold-")
  • XI. Glory
  • 1. No more Sad Mexicans
  • 2. Mexican Heaven ("when my uncle got to heaven")
  • 3. Another Harlem Poem
  • 4. Ojalá: Self-Love
  • 5. Down to My Elbows
  • 6. Rebuttal
  • 7. Shelter Island
  • 8. Let's Get Married
  • 9. Related: The Sky is Dope
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Booklist Review

In a prefatory note to his glistening second poetry collection, Olivarez (Citizen Illegal, 2018) states his intention to dismantle colonial harm by questioning Spanish colonial values: "What is gold to us? What is holy to us? Where do we find glory?" Rather than retrace a history of conquistadors, Olivarez elevates small but notable moments through a sensitive, introspective speaker who must learn tough lessons on the streets of Calumet City. When a friend gets jumped for his sneakers: ""this is how we learned to be boys: / we kept everything we loved close by / & out of sight." But Olivarez also undercuts well-worn tropes of Mexican-American migration by offering glimmers of hope, such as "Poem Where No One Is Deported." The speaker even admits to hypocrisy; he knows that Mexico will always "be an oppressive nation state," yet still sends "Mexican flag emojis / to all the homies" when a popular Jaliscan boxer wins a match. The book includes a Spanish translation and bilingual readers will enjoy flipping back and forth to see how the prism of each poem changes its hue in the light of another language.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this moving second collection, Olivarez (Citizen Illegal) reflects on his Mexican identity through poems that explore platonic and romantic love, the joys of friendship and food, and the pain and loss at the heart of capitalist society. A "child of loss," Olivarez still believes in a salvation made possible by relationships and feeling, a world where "my friends show up unannounced & always welcome." Details grounded in the everyday world capture great fulfillment, such as "Hershey's Kisses," "hot Cheetos," "ramen noodle days," and tortillas "warmed on a comal." "aybe we could redefine kin," Olivarez proposes, and these poems make a strong case for that redefinition, revealing how close bonds are an antidote to the world's hardships. In one poem, the speaker details how their lover "kisses me on the cheek in a language/ that needs no translation." The poet's sensitive and insightful voice allows these stirring poems to successfully explore the forces acting on love in a complex world, and the unshakable promise of understanding and belonging. (Feb.)

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