In the fire of time (Bridges)

This work inaugurates a series of individual books of poetry in bilingual editions, written by Mexican and American authors. María Ángeles Juárez Téllez is a daughter of the natural heart of México, where volcanoes and lava forged valleys of stone and ashes where the people of Michoacán have raised lavish orchards of citrus and avocados for generations. In the fire of time rescues from the entrails of her body and mind the flames that have tattooed the author inside and out: the adult world of her childhood, the neverending concerns of love and heartbreak, the instinctive and sometimes futile attempt to grasp her daughter, a mockingbird with the voice of her mother, the gush of light of the Michoacán landscape, the metaphor of life that trains are, and a heretical view of the New Testament. Hers is a full-bodied voice with a particular aesthetic that is born of her continuous study of language. This conveys beauty to each page, with the poet’s pacing, a clock-like mechanism that makes each poem work. Herein, we are unpretentiously made privy to her extensive readings and her assimilation of the work of great writers, such as López Velarde’s national vision and the mourning luminosities of Villaurrutia; the mystique of the God-fearing John of the Cross; or the fervent poetry of Concha Urquiza. In several of her poems, especially toward the end of the book, the author leads us through parables and biblical passages, testing our faith in the Scriptures, stripping or providing them with the sacred at will, impersonating herself in creative goddess form. It is not that María Ángeles Juárez plays in her verses with some tainted practices of her religion, but that by knowing the power of its ritual symbols and invocations, she is able to transmute men into flesh angels. María Ángeles Juárez drinks from many literary streams in a natural and fertile way. Her voice is clear, strong, beautiful and mature. She leaves in her wake many crackling traces—metaphors and verses of fire. They are evidence that shows us where we must look to find her.