Tarta Americana
Penguin Publishing Group · Paperback · September 12, 2023
A suite of poems that channels the legendary singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens to examine and question mid-twentieth-century conceptions of race and art, identity and desire Ragged and raging across the spectrums of cognition, race, and gender, Tarta Americana lyrically envisions forms of survival outside neuronormative perceptions and histories.
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- Who it’s for
- A suite of poems channels Ritchie Valens while questioning mid-century ideas about race and art.
- Themes
- Race and art, Neurodiversity and survival, Identity, gender, and desire
- Genres
- Hispanic American Poetry, LGBTQ+ Poetry, Political & Protest Poetry
Nearest books
Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Hispanic American Poetry.
The Border SimulatorGabriel Dozal, Natasha Tiniacos47% matchAlso shares Political & Protest Poetry
MacheteTomás Q. Morín56% matchAlso shares Political & Protest Poetry
Death of the First IdeaRickey Laurentiis55% matchAlso shares LGBTQ+ Poetry
Museum of the AmericasJ. Michael Martinez55% match
Latino Poetry: the Library of America Anthology (LOA #382)Rigoberto González54% match
How to Love a CountryRichard Blanco53% matchAlso shares LGBTQ+ Poetry and Political & Protest Poetry
Unsettling AmericaMaria Mazziotti Gillan, Jennifer Gillan53% match
American RhapsodyClaudia Roth Pierpont53% match
For younger readers: Life of / La Vida De Ritchie (bilingual: English/spanish), Before the Devil Knows You're Here, A Song for the Road
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A suite of poems that channels the legendary singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens to examine and question mid-twentieth-century conceptions of race and art, identity and desire Ragged and raging across the spectrums of cognition, race, and gender, Tarta Americana lyrically envisions forms of survival outside neuronormative perceptions and histories.
Continue reading
Against the recent tide of white nationalism in the United States, Tarta Americana finds a rhinestone in Ritchie Valens, the rock and roll legend, surfacing across time and bodies, genders and sounds, displacing the linear unfolding of desire and biography. Valens, the embodiment of corporeal transcendence, guides Martinez as he expresses his own neurodiversity, his struggles and triumphs, interrogating memory, gender, and race, traversing pain in search of compassion and joy. Tarta Americana, tarred and glittering, melodic in its screams, overdrives text and space in chase of American politics that could, at last, harmonize love with redemption.
Ritchie Valens in Verse
A suite of poems channels Ritchie Valens while questioning mid-century ideas about race and art.
Come here for
- Ritchie Valens as a lens on race, art, identity, and desire
- Poems that question mid-century ideas about race and art
Expect
- Reflections on neurodiversity, memory, gender, and survival
- American politics rendered through overdriven text and space
Where it sits
| Hispanic American Poetry | 91% |
|---|---|
| LGBTQ+ Poetry | 51% |
| Political & Protest Poetry | 41% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- American Poetry
- Hispanic American Poetry
- Poetry - General Themes
- Authors
- J. Michael Martinez
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- September 12, 2023
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- Race and art · Neurodiversity and survival · Identity, gender, and desire
- Reading lane
- American Poetry