Raft of Flame

"Inspired by Lorca's passionate cante jondo or deep song, and the artist author's family history with Andalusian flamenco, Raft of Flame's poems weave together in a time-travelling epic that searches myth and nature for identity, personal and cultural. Imagining when Cortâes lands in Mexico, the collection includes conversations between a conquistador and an Olmec sculpture, Frida Kahlo and Velazquez, Dorothy and Glinda the Good Witch. Navigating her Latina and European heritage through art made by artists of the ancient Americas and Spain, Alvarez maps intersections between personal and political history. Vivid lyrics interrogate the complexities of mixed race. Vital to its narrative is how nature continues to be trapped in the violence of colonization"--