My Hair Turning Gray Among Strangers - Softcover

Leroy V. Quintana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0927534576 ISBN 13: 9780927534574

Publisher: Bilingual Pr (Bilrp), 1996

Synopsis

This new collection by one of the most recognized Chicano poets presents a vivid portrait of the traditional, small-town New Mexico of his youth from the vantage point of a departed son who yearns for the integrity and coherence of that world. These deceptively simple story poems, vivid snapshots of remembered people and places, are punctuated by remarkable bilingual word play. Although they are genuinely Chicano, the poems address, with humor and insight, some of the central dilemmas of contemporary American life: tradition versus progress, belonging versus alienation, and self-fulfillment versus obligation.

About this title

About the Author:

Leroy V. Quintana teaches English at San Diego Mesa College in California.

From Publishers Weekly:

In his fifth book of poems, Quintana (The History of Home), two-time winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, explores the shape of emotional and spiritual exile, as well as the need to return, literally and figuratively, to a place once called home. Filled with regional images and speech patterns from Chicano New Mexico, where he was born and raised, these are narrative, character-centered poems about specific tias and primos and the stories associated with each. An old miner who accurately warned of a pending cave-in explains his prescience: ``Mira, any time you see the ratones/ down there suddenly scampering up/ you'd better tambien.'' Quintana also strikes slightly dissonant comic notes, as in ``La Opera,'' in which a son interprets a mother's question to be about Puccini when in fact she's talking about a well-known talk-show host. The voice of these poems is both a product of its roots and a reaction against it. This paradox transforms the mundane events of homecoming into a serious grappling with a universal phenomenon.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bilingual Pr (Bilrp)
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0927534576
• ISBN 13: 9780927534574
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 76