The Strange House Testifies - Tapa blanda

In her first full-length volume of poems, Ruth Irup Sanabria explores language's power to destroy and create through the imagination and narrative of free-verse poems fueled by metaphor, music, and satire. In the first section, the author writes about a genocidal dictatorship that began in 1976 and that brought about the disappearances and deaths of thousands of Argentines. Voices of the children of the disappeared are juxtaposed with official expos 's on the dictatorship, illuminating their plight in vivid detail. The second section explores racism and poverty and imbues it with the rhythms of Latino music and jazz. In the third section, the poet exploring the idea that victims of political violence may actually be enabling it through complicity, apathy, and guilt. Written in a variety of styles, Sanabria's poetry provides a fresh perspective on social injustice and on poetry itself.