Synopses & Reviews
Trochemoche means helter-skelter in Spanish, and this book expresses the turmoil of the barrio and the various themes that drive Luis J. Rodriguez's poetry. Drawing on more than 10 years of poems, Rodriguez writes powerfully and passionately about urban youth, family, and the plight of neglected communities, while exploring the rich cultural roots of his Chicano ancestry. Trochemoche explores recovery and personal growth, ways of knowledge, revolution, and the power of poetry. It is a cholo-stance of indigenous jazz, of roots and reckoning. In the cadence of struggle, of street talk, and the salient speech of the social outcast, Trochemoche is about new meters, new meanings, the new verse of colors, breath, and whispers at the closing of the millennium and at the mouth of the new. It expresses soul-freedom as the clarion call of the new politics. This is the poetry that takes us where we have to go.
Synopsis
TROCHEMOCHE means helter-skelter in Spanish, and this book expresses the turmoil of the barrio and the various themes that drive Luis J. Rodriquez's poetry. Drawing on more than ten years of poems, Rodriguez writes powerfully and passionately about urban youth, family, and the plight of neglected communities, while exploring the rich cultural roots of his Chicano ancestry.
About the Author
Luis J. Rodriguez has published fifteen books of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction. He is best known for his 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. His awards include a Finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award, a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, a Paterson Poetry Prize, a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and fellowships from the Sundance Institute, the Lannan Foundation, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Chicago, the California Arts Council, and the Illinois Arts Council, among others. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 chose Luis J. Rodriguez as Poet Laureate of the city. Luis is also Visiting Scholar at California State University, Northridge.