We Had Our Reasons, by Ricardo Ruiz
(A Poetry Collection)
I will occasionally post my recommendations for new poetry publications and other writings. I’ll start with new books that I find regionally.
My findings may be late to the party of new books but I want to share some of my discoveries.
I’ll start with a poet in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Ricardo Ruiz. He is the son of a migrant worker family in an Eastern Washington farming community. He was born in the United States, and his mother and father eventually gained legal resident status, while others in the community remained undocumented.
The source material for his poems are conversations he had with migrant worker families in his community. Some speak both Spanish and English, and others only speak Spanish. The book, We Had Our Reasons, is printed in both English and Spanish on alternating pages. Ruiz thinks of the book’s spine as the border between two countries.
Ruiz interviewed the people and the poems came from those conversations.
These poems are meant to be open conversations with others about an immigrant community’s experiences. Ruiz says, “It’s a start.”
We all need a way to start understanding one another. I like Ruiz’s approach using poetry. I’ve ordered my copy from Amazon.
#reading #poetry #immigrantfamilies
Writing in Sand 