Part reckoning, part renewal, part redemption, part rebirth, the poems in Tortillera come clean, but more than that, they guide, reveal and examine larger considerations: the role of language on gender, the heartrending consequences of compulsory heterosexuality, and the patriarchal stamp emblazoned on the Cuban diaspora.

Tortillera chronicles the life of a Cuban-American daughter, wife and mother as she dismantles the existence she was taught to want in order to evolve into the queer woman she was born to be. Told through intimate, narrative poems, the speaker's life "on the hyphen" is laid bare as she grapples with the effect language, place, and cultural expectations have on sexuality, gender and identity.

The TRP Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series: Florida