Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Citizen Illegal
    Citizen Illegal
    Citizen Illegal
    Ebook86 pages41 minutes

    Citizen Illegal

    By José Olivarez

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “Olivarez steps into the ‘inbetween’ standing between Mexico and America in these compelling, emotional poems. Written with humor and sincerity” (Newsweek).
     
    Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek and NPR.
     
    In this “devastating debut” (Publishers Weekly), poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in, with a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch.
     
    “The son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez celebrates his Mexican-American identity and examines how those two sides conflict in a striking collection of poems.” —USA Today
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateSep 4, 2018
    ISBN9781608469550
    Citizen Illegal
    Author

    José Olivarez

    José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he coedited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. He cohosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods.

    Related to Citizen Illegal

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      I have an endless appetite for starfruit,for biting my teeth into the universe and spitting outthe space junk, for licking the rings of my favorite planetsand never slicing my tongue. There’s a story I shareabout my birth where angels circle my dead

      2 min read

    • Article

      Devil Asks Why You Would Mouth The Word Pity

      Jul 1, 2022

      even in this abundance of dark? Even in this abundance of dark you have totake the stars on faith. Look: Under today’s dim sky there is a basket.In that basket there is a fish. Come night, you are the animal that will eat the best parts of it. And ye

      1 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      The painting is of a door, its wood so warpedwith moisture it cannot close. It stays ajar leaving a sliver of light—enough to suggestsomething sweet and almost unreachable behind the door—and you sit in yourroom working on the bills or those comforti

      4 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • Article

      All The Gay Saints

      May 1, 2020

      All The Gay Saints
      4 min read

    • Article

      Six Sonnets

      Jan 1, 2021

      Goldenrod, I could say, you know, everybody wants somethingfrom me, but, well, everybody wants something and nobody wantsnothing from me, goldenrod, towhead, beast. Goldenrod, you packthe meadows like gold-plated sardines. I have heart palpitationsbu

      3 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      I’ve seen enough films where a character nickshimself shaving or maybe has a bread knife slip and the thinrun of blood is supposed to stand for some violence,for something he did and is desperateto cover up, but the truth will out—I’ve seen enough th

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane

      Apr 20, 2021

      Lane's memoir, which won the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, explores the author's ancestral history in order to give her future child a family history. The post ‘We Are Bridges’: Featured Nonfiction from Cassandra Lane appeared first on The

      8 min read

    • Article

      Carrie Fountain

      Mar 1, 2020

      Outside Dublin, Texas the radio stationsdisappear and I’m left alone with the faintvoice of a call-in psychologist talkingto a man in Cleveland about the voiceof the self, the narratives that voicetells, how they can be sharp and wrongand cut to the

      5 min read

    • Article

      Words to Live By

      Jun 25, 2018

      Words to Live By
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Citizen Illegal

    4.5/5

    41 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A wonderful exploration of identity on both sides of a border fraught with a tragic and beautiful history.
    • 5/5
      "Ode to Cheese Fries"golden goo of artificial deliciousness,what probably linesmy stomach with sunlike grease for weeks aftereating the yellowso yellow it could only be manufactured, so whatif it's fake?as much cheese content as Apple Jolly Ranchers -i come froma city of foreclosure foreclosure empty lot. citywhere we gotdollar-store-brand action figures - so whatmy Wolverine didn'thave retractable claws or the right uniform?so my joyat Pano's my favorite fried-everything spot -the cashier's voicea box of Newports filtered through throat -i didn't knowi would miss this home where the pattiescome from freezersand maybe not ever from cows or even animals -i live ina city that brags about its organic fair-tradequinoa-fed beef -of course i miss the '90s playing in the restaurant -the Back Street Boyslive in Cal City where the band never breaks up,the song playson repeat as the cashier takes my order, say it with me -cheese fries please -give me everything artificial including cardboard fries,the bread freshout of some Walmart cloning experiment - throw ina cold pop -i want a joy so fake it stains my insides &never fades away* * * *"Note: Rose that Grows from Concrete"the inspirational slogan wants you to believe you are a rose, but consider theemperor's muddy boot. you could be a rose or concrete, the record suggeststhe boot sees both both as a welcome mat. we need a new metaphor. a seed is bet-ter. but when seeds grow, who gets the fruit? fuck it. be a rusty nail. makethe emperor howl.****In Citizen Illegal Chicagoan Jose Olivarez draws on his Mexican-American experience and heritage in a collection that is profound and provoking. He's second generation, and his parents have aspirations for him.One set of poems sprinkled throughout the book are all titled "Mexican Heaven". Here are three:"Mexican Heaven"all the Mexican women refuse to cook or cleanor raise the kids or pay bills or make the bed ordrive your bum ass to work or do anything exceptwatch their novelas, so heaven is gross, the ratsare fat as roosters and the men die of starvation."Mexican Heaven"Saint Peter lets Mexicans into heavenbut only to work in the kitchens.a Mexican dishwasher polishes the crystal,smells the meals, & hears the music.they dream of another heaven,one they might be allowed inif they work hard enough."Mexican Heaven"there are white people in heaven, too.they build condos across the street& ask the Mexicans to speak English.i'm just kiddingthere are no white people in heaven.* * * *There are great poems about his parents getting into this country in the trunk of a Toyota Tercel ("My Parents Fold Like Luggage"), wishing for a birthday night on which his mother doesn't need to worry ("On My Mom's 50th Birthday"), saying "Hell No" in Chicago ("Hecky Naw"), my favorite Chicago Bulls basketball player, Scottie Pippen ("Ode to Scottie Pippen"), trying to fulfill his parents' aspirations ("I Tried to Be a Good Mexican Son"), worrying about living with a Trump country and dangerous police ("Mexican American Obituary"), ways of being labeled by the government and being a "Mexican American ... who colleges love, but only on brochures" ("Mexican American Disambiguation"), and many more. No hit and miss in this one; they were all hits for me. Five stars and right now my favorite poetry collection of the year. It just got nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
    • 5/5
      This is a phenomenal book of poems. It is beautiful and funny and heartbreaking all at once

    Book preview

    Citizen Illegal - José Olivarez

    I

    (Citizen) (Illegal)

    Mexican woman (illegal) and Mexican man (illegal)

    have a Mexican (illegal)-American (citizen).

    is the baby more Mexican or American?

    place the baby in the arms of the mother (illegal).

    if the mother holds the baby (citizen)

    too long, does the baby become illegal?

    the baby is a boy (citizen). he goes to school (citizen).

    his classmates are American (citizen). he is outcast (illegal).

    his hellos are in the wrong language (illegal).

    he takes the hyphen separating loneliness (Mexican)

    from friendship (American) and jabs it at the culprit (illegal).

    himself (illegal). his own traitorous tongue (illegal).

    his name (illegal). his mom (illegal). his dad (illegal).

    take a Mexican woman (illegal) and a Mexican man (illegal).

    if they have a baby and the baby looks white enough to pass (citizen).

    if the baby grows up singing Selena songs to his reflection (illegal).

    if the baby hides from el cucuy and la migra (illegal).

    if the baby (illegal) (citizen) grows up to speak broken Spanish (illegal)

    and perfect English (citizen). if the boy’s nickname is Güerito (citizen).

    if the boy attends college (citizen). if the boy only dates women (illegal)

    of color (illegal). if the boy (illegal)

    uses phrases like women of color (citizen).

    if the boy (illegal) (citizen) writes (illegal) poems (illegal).

    if the boy (citizen) (illegal) grows up (illegal) and can only write (illegal)

    this story in English (citizen), does that make him more

    American (citizen) or Mexican (illegal)?

    My Parents Fold Like Luggage

    my parents fold like luggage

    into the trunk of a Toyota Tercel.

    stars glitter against a black sky.

    from the sky, the Tercel is a small lady

    bug traveling north. from the sky,

    borders do not exist. the Tercel stops

    in front of a man in green. stars glitter

    like broken glass. the night so heavy

    it chokes. in the trunk, it is starless.

    my parents protect this moment. this now.

    what folds them into the trunk of a Tercel.

    the belief that the folding will end.

    it doesn’t. dollars fold into bills. my parents

    near breaking. broke. they protect what might

    unfold them to discover they are six:

    a family. if the man in green opens the

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1