Overview

This book takes the readers on a journey beginning in Puerto Rico to different parts of the world, on foot. The reader does not have to actually be on foot to join different events and experiences from the perspective of the legs. However, the reader might start seeing legs everywhere, perhaps themselves having more than two legs, and/or like a cat having multiple lives. In Puerto Rico there is the common idiom, ""She is always looking for the five legs of the cat."" It is said when someone is believed to try to complicate matters by overlooking and overanalyzing the situation. It assumes that this will lead to feeling overwhelmed, distressed, and to internal and external conflict. It can be said in a funny way while adding a sarcastic compliment of being creative. However, more often is meant as a critique, even a severe one. Through poetry, this book embraces the challenge of accepting some of the idiom's veracity, while leaving it up to the readers to come to their final conclusion. The book is divided into seven parts, including the five legs of the cat. The first part is about my childhood and youth experiences as they happened. The second part stays closer to home with childhood and youth experiences while adding a more nostalgic and reflective tone. The third part starts looking closely at the legs around the world from a critical perspective. The next part is about capturing the legs literally at different positions and their implications in different situations. The fifth part can be considered Ars Poetica by showing the process of turning the legs/the feet into poetry. This is followed by a section on the legs making different arts and becoming playful. The seventh and last part is about the legs at the end of life and perhaps taking us into the next one. The Five of Legs of the Cat goes from a more narrative and prosaic to more reflective and experimental style; from the mundane to the existential, the local to the international, the simpler to the complex experiences in life. It covers a wide variety of topics, such as, gender, religion/faith, relationships, race, the body in general, love, memory, the arts, food, health issues, death, migration, the environment, domestic violence, war, and other injustices. The book can be considered an autoethnography, a poetic ethnography or an ethnographic poetry within the context of literary anthropology and native anthropology.

Full Product Details

9781732952195

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Each of these provocative, surprising poems pulls small phrases about everyday life, creating a cascade of meaning. There's a glorious mix of English and Spanish here. We're often challenged and amused. How Samiri Hernández Hiraldo mixes the shadow of a deer with her own fears shows fearlessness. We need poets writing with such talented honesty."" -Mary Jane Ryals, Poet Laureate of the Big Bend of Florida and author of The Moving Waters ""The reader will put the fifth leg on the cat in this brave portrait of a border-crossing intelligence- bilingual, bicultural-and its humane vision of our migrant selves. Samiri Hernández Hiraldo becomes a poet of the English language here and we are cheering."" -Indran Amirthanayagam, author of The Migrant States ""Samiri Hernández Hiraldo is a wise and humorous guide through the varied landscapes of childhood and religion, of Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast, across the terrain of the body, navigating its joys and pains. We are altered by the journey."" -Josephine Yu, author of Prayer Book of the Anxious"

Each of these provocative, surprising poems pulls small phrases about everyday life, creating a cascade of meaning. There's a glorious mix of English and Spanish here. We're often challenged and amused. How Samiri Hernandez Hiraldo mixes the shadow of a deer with her own fears shows fearlessness. We need poets writing with such talented honesty. -Mary Jane Ryals, Poet Laureate of the Big Bend of Florida and author of The Moving Waters The reader will put the fifth leg on the cat in this brave portrait of a border-crossing intelligence- bilingual, bicultural-and its humane vision of our migrant selves. Samiri Hernandez Hiraldo becomes a poet of the English language here and we are cheering. -Indran Amirthanayagam, author of The Migrant States Samiri Hernandez Hiraldo is a wise and humorous guide through the varied landscapes of childhood and religion, of Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast, across the terrain of the body, navigating its joys and pains. We are altered by the journey. -Josephine Yu, author of Prayer Book of the Anxious

Author Information

Samiri Hernández Hiraldo was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan and has taught Anthropology, Religion, Women Studies, and Latino/Afro-Latino Studies. She currently teaches these and other subjects at Florida A&M University and conducts research on re-africanization in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. Hernández Hiraldo has written articles, chapters, and book reviews on the above topics. In 2006 she published her book, Black Puerto Rican Identity and Religious Experience (University Press of Florida 2006; 2014). In 2012 Hernández Hiraldo was awarded as a finalist on the shortlist of the National Poetry Series' Paz Prize for Poetry competition (in honor of Octavio Paz) for her poetry collection, ""Entre borrosas guardarrayas"" (Between Blurry Boundaries). Her poems have appeared in PALARA (Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association), Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, The Griot: The Journal of African American Studies, The Acentos Review, Azahares, Latin American Literary Review, Latino Book Review, Letralia, and The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism. Her collection of poetry, Al Vapor (Steamed) was published in August of 2020 by Editorial Calíope in Madrid, Spain, and Cuando el líquido es sólido (When the Liquid Is Solid) in January of 2021 by Publicaciones Entre Líneas in Florida, United States. Hernández Hiraldo also coordinates poetry events as a board member of Palaver Tree Theater, a non-profit community organization serving the Big Bend Area. She shares her poetry with many different audiences, including young students. She is a proud participant in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Poetas Sin Fronteras (Poets Without Borders).

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