Anthony Cody

A strange book with an annoying format--hard to hold, and hard to read with extra-long lines when pages have extra-long lines. Newspaper clippings that are virtually illegible but (seemingly?) important to the text. A weird Glenn Beck-ish style that I don't think was done ironically. Censoring/removing nearly all words from official documents does not reveal any true meaning.

This book is about the poor treatment (from public mocking to lynchings) of Mexicans by the United States/Americans after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Which is interesting because Mexico/Spain was itself a colonizer. P 156 (Notes): "The ability to forget, reshape, and erase the histories of "the other" and the atrocities committed against "the other" by the United States, its agents and citizens, allow these acts to become part of the fabric of the nation." Yet that is exactly what he has done by framing Mexicans living in newly acquired territories as only victims, and also as the only victims. Only in the acknowledgements does the author recognize the native peoples--and only those who lived on the specific lands he has lived in and written on.

I have now read all 10 2020 NBA Poetry longlisted books. This would rank 9th for me. Interestingly, the author of my 10th is thanked by this author. I don't believe any of the others appear in his acknowledgements (though there are lots of names in these hard-to-read long lines, I might have missed someone else!).… (more)