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by Carlos Aguasaco (Author)
Cardinal in My Window with a Mask on Its Beak takes readers on a journey through poetic portraits, exploring the lives of passionate social justice advocates and historical migrants such as Ota Benga, Sarah Baartman, Isidro Marcelino Orbés, César Vallejo, and Gertrude Stein, among others. Raw and unapologetic, the poems in this bilingual collection ask readers to question their role in today's society. The verses press the reader to examine what it means to have social justice in our globalized world, as Aguasaco confronts how society treats the Other--be that the immigrant, the Indigenous person, or anyone who embodies Otherness.
A first-generation immigrant to the United States, Aguasaco embraces his transborder/transnational/intercultural identity by building a bridge across time and distance to unite the great voices of the Renaissance with his lyrical poems. The collection offers bold and fascinating dialogue with Spanish authors such as Juan Boscán, Francisco de Quevedo, Garcilaso de la Vega, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The poems examine the fundamental liberties inherent to humanity through stunning verse. In a quest for freedom, the poems openly criticize the treatment of immigrants in the United States, drawing poignant parallels with human rights abuses throughout history. Cardinal in My Window with a Mask on Its Beak brings potent voices of the past to life in poems that critically examine the present and future of the human experience.Author Biography
Carlos Aguasaco is a professor of Latin American cultural studies and chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the City College of New York (CUNY). His most recent poetry book is The New York City Subway Poems.
Jennifer Rathbun, a professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at Ball State University, has published sixteen books of poetry in translation; two anthologies of poetry; and the poetry collection The Book of Betrayals. Rathbun completed her PhD at the University of Arizona.
