Against Erasure
Balam Rodrigo’s Central American Book of the Dead
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20249259 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeannine Marie Pitas (Saint Vincent College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 139 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/h14070139 |
| OpenAlex | W4412005704 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 1 |
“Know that in place of a heart I carry a tongue,” writes the unnamed poetic speaker of Mexican poet Balam Rodrigo’s Central American Book of the Dead. This documentary poetic text alternates between the voices of Central American immigrants journeying north and a subtle yet bold revision of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas’s A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, with some words from the Friar’s 1552 text replaced by other words that reflect the realities of twenty-first century immigrants traveling north. Interspersed with de la Casas’s texts are persona poems in which we are invited to listen to the ghosts of immigrants who have suffered tragic deaths. This essay explores the ways that, crossing borders between time and space while drawing strength from his Christian faith, Rodrigo resists the erasure of Indigenous peoples, honors their journeys, and invites readers into solidarity
Art · Erasure · Humanities · Programming language · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Computer Science · Latin American Literature Studies · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |