Maraca: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2000

Seeds of imagination turn into magical rhythms in this collection spanning thirty-five years. Born in Puerto Rico in 1949, Victor Hernández Cruz moved to New York at the age of six, but he has retained the memories of hearing the men in his family read novels and poems aloud as they rolled cigars in the steamy Caribbean heat. These tropical and urban vistas have informed a body of work that has dazzled readers since a twenty-year-old Cruz exploded onto the national scene with Snaps (Random House). Cruz has become an important exponent of the use of “Spanglish” in contemporary literature, and his appearance on the Bill Moyers’s Language of Life PBS series has cemented his reputation as one of the significant poets of our time. Also Available by Victor Hernández Panaramas PB $12.95, 1-56689-066-7 • CUSA Red Beans and Rice PB $12.95, 0-918273-91-9 • CUSA