The Roots of A Thousand Embraces: Dialogues

"Juan Felipe Hererra’s writing fuses wide-ranging experimentalism with reflections on Mexican-American identity . . ."—The New York TimesIn forty cantos, the poet explores the metaphysical relationship between Frida Kahlo, her art, her broken body, and cross-border consciousness. First published in 1994, this early work—his sixth book—reveals a deep sense of longing for all to be made whole again in spite of fractures—physical, metaphorical, cultural—bestowed by the world.From "Prologue: A Second Body":Think on the time it takes a scar to heal,a river to rise — an old woman to regain the tumblingpowers of her busted arms — a young woman (callingherself Frida) to re-structure her shattered vertebrae, tobe caught up with a body-cast, a second body which sheinhabits — for the rest of her life; this is precious to me,that is all. She painted herself somewhere in-between Mexico andthe United States — in the open space of the jaws; betweenthe mandibles of the jaguar and the nuclear turbine.It is the healing of this metaphysical fracture too (whichmay invoke further breakage) that concerns me.Juan Felipe Herrera was raised in a farm-working family in the San Joaquin Valley. A graduate of UCLA, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Stanford University, he has written numerous books. Herrera’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN USA Award. Former Poet Laureate of California and now United States Poet Laureate, he lives in Fresno.