The new collection Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women features the works of distinguished Latina writers, poets, mystics, and musicians.
Some of the writers hold national acclaim and titles, while others are lesser known figures whose voices have gone unheard.
Their works span five generations and are arranged into 13 different sections that aren’t defined by genre or sequence.
Each section represents the 13 sacred moons of the year, ranging from Graceful Moon to the Supreme Moon.
Editor Sandra Guzmán, a feminist writer and filmmaker, took inspiration from the symbolism associated with the number 13.
She said the grouping of works allows readers to start at any point in the book.
“You can open it up at any moment, and the medicine is there for you,” she said. “[This anthology] is not meant to be read from front-to-back. You can read it at any moment and you’re going to find beauty and brilliance.”
Writers Natalia Trigo and Norma Elia Cantú contributed works in two different sections of the anthology.
Cantú, Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, said she supports the use of the descriptor “Latine” in the subtitle of the book as an alternative for “Latina/o” or “Latinx.”
“In my view, we’re inclusive, and it covers all of us,” she said. “Just like the anthology, it’s borderless, but it also, in so many ways, rompe barreras. It breaks those barriers of nations, of language, of identities.”
Hear the first part of the conversation here.
