Summary

La cultura es un elemento indisolublemente ligado a la identidad. Al descomponernos en partes, terminaríamos viéndonos como la suma de todos los factores que estructuran la realidad cotidiana . Lo mismo sucede con los países; también con los continentes. América Latina es, por todo ello, herencia viva y palpable de su historia; también por su idioma. El Español debería ser mejor apreciado por todos los que hemos recibido sus maravillosos recursos expresivos como eficaz modelo de comunicación con los demás. Al compararlo con todas las otras lenguas que muchas veces nos invaden, sabríamos protegerlo mejor, si realmente apreciáramos la variada riqueza linguística de que disponemos los hispanoparlantes. Este libro se encargará de recordárnoslo. En el poema que le da título, queda todo muy claramente dicho: "los lenguajes llevan consigo todo su fuego y poderío". La autora explora aquí las tensiones entre lenguas y culturas resumiendo los dilemas a los que se enfrenta hoy un país como los Estados Unidos de América, cada vez más bilingüe.

Author Biography

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rosario Ferré is Puerto Rico's leading woman of letters. She has written novels, poetry, short fiction, children's books, biography, and literary criticism in Spanish and English. She received the Liberatur Prix in Germany for Sweet Diamond Dust in 1992, and was a Natoinal Book Award finalsit for The House on the Lagoon in 1995. Her novels have been published in many languages and she translates her own fiction into Spanish. Her most recent novel, Flight of the Swan, was published in 2001. She lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A NOTE ABOUT THE CO-TRANSLATOR Alan West Durán is a poet, translator, and writer. He won the 1996 Latino Literature Prize fro Poetry with Finding Voices in the Rain. He recently published El tejido de Asterió o las máscaras del logos (2000), a book-length poem, and translated Alejo Carpentier's Music in Cuba (2001).

Language Duel	p. 2
Language Current	p. 6
A Crack in the I	p. 8
La Parguera Bay	p. 10
Coming Up the Archipelago	p. 12
Caribeat	p. 20
The Humble Foot	p. 24
Miami Is a City of Tunnels	p. 28
The Bones of Conquerors	p. 30
Juan de Onate	p. 32
Saguaro Countdown	p. 36
27th Floor N.Y.	p. 40
La Dama de Elche	p. 44
Spanish at the Ritz	p. 48
Counterpoint	p. 50
A Beso Is Not a Kiss	p. 52
Tongue Less	p. 54
Latino Halleluia	p. 56
The Poem	p. 58
Words as Vessels	p. 60
Almost Extinct	p. 62
Angel with Copper Eyes	p. 66
Snapshot in Black and White	p. 70
Abandoned House	p. 74
Second Millennium Santa	p. 76
Brother and Sister	p. 80
Walking Fountains	p. 86
The Colonial Experience	p. 90
Mary and Elizabeth	p. 92
Pinot Noir	p. 94
Twin Towers	p. 96
Poems from The Two Venices
Watercolor	p. 104
Giorgione	p. 106
Rialta's Laughter	p. 110
Channel Author	p. 112
The Grand Canal	p. 114
Death in Venice	p. 116
Venetian Glass Beads	p. 118
Hoffmann's Barcarole	p. 120
Homeless WDC	p. 122
Ode to the Unknown Soldier	p. 124
Conceptual Art	p. 128
The Shadow of Guilt	p. 134
Tropical Storm	p. 136
The Poem's Rumba	p. 138
The Sea Faring City	p. 140
Poems from Fables of the Bled Heron
To the Knight of the Rose	p. 158
Requiem	p. 162
Opprobium	p. 164
Negative	p. 166
Positive	p. 170
Envoi	p. 174
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