Cutting edge Chicano poet Juan Felipe Herrera and young master print maker Artemio Rodriguez of Michoacan Mexico combine as a dynamic duo to produce a book that is more than the sum of its gifts. The two share an obvious affinity of irrepressible hilarity in their work, a Mexican aesthetic of living with and laughing at death present in the darkest issues, the grittiest subjects, simultaneously celebrating in florid imagery in both picture and word the sometimes desperate, sometimes exhilarating vivacity of Mexican American immigrants. At the same time there's enough aesthetic difference between Herrera's hip Bay Area surrealism and Rodriguez's more folkloric technique deliver a friction between the gritty and the sublime, between the dreamlike and the quotidian that depicts well the sometimes dangerous, often moving human drama of exile, immigration and restttlement. Out of the maelstrom of the experience of millions flies this piercing poetry combined, each poem, with a striking print.

"A book about innovation and tradition" is how Rupert Garcia describes this book in the useful introduction. I recommend that this is read first, because it helps one to understand the history of Loteria Cards in Mexico and the traditional iconography associated with them. They are actually the fusion of two games, Patolli a game of chance the Aztecs played, and Loteria a European Version of Bingo. In the game the name of the Loteria card is called out rather than the number. It may be a type person, an element or feature of nature, or something elses, and it is often accompanied by a phrase or poem by the caller to further identify the picture on the card. This is origin of the cards, a fusion like so many things in Mexico, has been put into a contemporary setting in this book.

Artemio Rodriguez uses a mixture of traditional iconography and modern images to produce beautiful Linocuts for the images of the Loteria Cards. They look both traditional Mexican and old (they remind me of woodcuts by Dürer), yet contemporary and modern at the same time. Each is distinct and unique.

The poems by Juan Felipe Herrera go very well with the Linocuts, and they too are a mixture of traditional Mexican, Chicano and modern subject-matter. They show that beliefs, feelings, and emotions carry over in time, space, language and culture. Some remain the same, while others change. The mix they create is in a constant state of metamorphosis, becoming undefinable, yet staying distinct.

The presentation of the book is beautiful, the cover, binding, paper, and printing are al well-done. Each page has a Loteria Cards and a poem that accompanies it. I really recommend this book. It is a thoughtful and beautiful present to give to someone who appreciates the combination of tradition, modernism, art, poetry...

I bought this book last year to give to a friend and after leafing through it, decided I couldn't part with it. Rodriguez's prints are rich, beautiful, terrifying -- but it is Herrera's words I fell in love with. Each poem is it's own mystery. These are perfect pieces, perfectly married to their accompanying images, and make one incredible poetic whole.

Border Crosser With A Lambourghini Dream spells it out for the reader:this book is an inyoface collection of poems that spins our curiosities into unknown directions. The reader is spellbound by images that riff off another; thus, this book becomes the mirror image of self and forces the reader to look internally at damage done.From Subzero:"image/mirage/indian/myself/reversed/behind/the mule". The section, Blood Poems, is raw & unique. Juan Felipe's abstract imagery is the hardcore language that becomes spit in the face: it is the language & gesture of the hoodrat, the hipster, the street person--" Blood at the age of seventeen/Blood at the age of one,in a Greyhound bus". These poems will shake your reality lopsided.

As with much of Herrera's poetry, the reader will experience estrangement of the first order. One may picture American society as an "exploding quazar" that requires several readings to discern. Herrera's synecdoches take time to unravel, but well worth the effort. This is Carlos Santana meeting David Lynch: the "Last Mayan rock band" performing songs that aptly depict society, the status of art, and subjectivity at the twilight of postmodernism. Good stuff.

This bilingual picture book tells the story of poet Juan Felipe Herrera's early years with his parents who were migrant farmworkers in California. Herrera's love for his poor hardworking parents is evident. The vibrant, vivid pictures by Elly Simmons combine with Herrera's Spanish/English text to make a delightful children's book that readers of all ages will enjoy!

One of Juan Felipe Herrera's best books, with longer poetic treatments displaying his sharpest prismatic formulations of tropical-surrealist technique. Get it while you can; it's one of Herrera's outstanding titles, culmination of decades of work, a milestone among his many other volumes, an edgy testament and exploration of the existential homeland in exile of the emigrant soul in all marginalized people of the 21st century. Tough, tender, terrific.

Young Juanito works with his Grandma Esperanza in selling clothing and used books at the local community flea market. As Juanito goes about running errands and bartering goods, he finds himself in the heart of a thriving Mexican American community, one that Juanito knows to be caring and generous, whose value can never be measured only in dollars. A superbly presented bilingual (English/Spanish) picturebook written by the Mexican-American poet Juan Felipe Herrera and illustrated by folk artist Anita De Lucio-Brock, Grandma And Me At The Flea is highly recommended for young readers ages 6 to 10.

"Herrera's new book is an agonized, hallucinatory chronicle of a couple's infatuation set during the L.A. riots... Movie-like treatment of images-jumpcuts, montages, and dissolves-drives this cinematographic tour de force and compels rapt reading at one sitting." --Harvard Review

"A stunning work presenting poems of barrio experiences." --The Bookwatch

"Rome and the Roman Empire are evoked as the lovers' passion burn through time and space, suggesting the intensity and difficulty of love in a decaying empire." --The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education

This multi-cultural storybook celebrates diversity through both the telling of the story and the inclusion of two languages: English and Spanish. Juanito is the son of migrant workers from Mexico. Neither of his parents had the opportunity to complete school, but realize the importance of education. When Juanito reaches school age, his parents settle down so that he may regularly attend. At first the new schedules feel strange to Juanito and he is often doing the wrong thing during designated times. However, once he adjusts, he discovers his beautiful singing voice, artistic talent, and receives high marks for a poem he wrote. He and his parents are proud of the success Juanito finds in school despite the challenge of adapting to an unfamiliar language and culture. The vibrant illustrations promote the positive feeling towords multiculturalism portrayed in this picture storybook.

This story tries to be touching, cool, alienated and uplifting, at all at once, but it just doesn't work. The poems are original in verse, but the story itself is depressing and stereotyped. Cesar's father has run off. Cesar is a delinquent in a ghetto school, ruining his life quickly. But then after the Bad Experiences that Turn His Life Around, he realizes The Truth of Things and decides to Walk the Straight and Narrow Path. Indeed the poems are fresh, and different, and quick to read. It's easy to have empathy for Ceasr's frustration. But the author makes the mistake of using tons of gang lingo and terms, which are explained -horrors!- by footnotes, as though this were a clinical study of a wild animal (the teenager). After a few chapters, the reader no longer feels as though he is taking a rare look inside of a rare mind, trapped in pitifully normal circumstances. Instead, it seems as though one is merely watching a documentary on a bad little boy who learns from his mistakes and Lives Happily Ever After. Don't read this book for insight into the delinquent lifestyle. The book almost furthers the idea that one can do many drugs, and yet still have a brilliant mind. The story never makes up its mind as to its position on the Bohemian lifestyle, and that is where it falls short. Instead of a parable, or a biography, this book remains merely a book of freshly written, yet ultimately unfulfilling poems. Read it for the verse, and not the story.