ESTA BOCA ES MIA by Lupita Limón Corrales





ESTA BOCA ES MIA by Lupita Limón Corrales
Translated by Alexia Veytia-Rubio

Coptic bind, 88 pages

    ESTA BOCA ES MIA offers vignettes of a life buzzing with hope. Interspersed with dedications to Leila Khaled, Daisy Zamora, and Emma Goldman, Lupita reflects on the revolutionaries and freedom fighters exemplary to her own political ideologies, tying local struggles against housing insecurity, over policing and the privatization of public space, with broader struggles against dictators, against imperialism within the global south, against misogyny within freedom struggles, against apartheid and settler colonialism within Palestine.

    Traversing the landscape of California and the  interpersonal intricacies within friendships, family, and romance, Lupita does the work of questioning and shaping her politics in moments of intimacy, in moments of respite. There is a quality of mythologizing that Lupita employs when describing her family or loved ones, particularly her parents, in their resilience and stubbornness. She presents urban legends and the absurdities of survival with a spiritual omnipresence.. It boils down to choice – that in the face of adversity, one can survive and have fun despite all odds because one chooses to.

    In the spirit of community and collaboration, ESTA BOCA ES MIA was graciously translated by Alexia Veytia-Rubio, a language justice organizer who Lupita met through organizing with the LA Tenants Union. The collection includes contributions written by friends and comrades: Beni Avalos, Mallory Bea, Sara Selevitch, and Shabina Toorawa.

    ESTA BOCA ES MÍA ofrece viñetas de una vida llena de esperanza. Intercalada con dedicatorias a Leila Khaled, Daisy Zamora y Emma Goldman, Lupita reflexiona sobre los revolucionarios y luchadores por la libertad ejemplares de sus propias ideologías políticas, vinculando las luchas locales contra la inseguridad en la vivienda, la vigilancia policial y la privatización del espacio público, con luchas más amplias contra los dictadores, contra el imperialismo dentro del sur global, contra la misoginia dentro de las luchas por la libertad, contra el apartheid y el colonialismo dentro de Palestina.

    Atravesando el paisaje de California y el paisaje de las dinamicas interpersonales dentro de las amistades, la familia y el romance, Lupita hace el trabajo de cuestionar y dar forma a su política en momentos de intimidad, en momentos de respiro. Hay una cualidad de mitificación que Lupita emplea al enmarcar o describir a su familia o a sus seres queridos, particularmente a sus padres, en su resiliencia y terquedad. Presenta leyendas urbanas y lo absurdo de la supervivencia con una omnipresencia espiritual....Todo se reduce a una elección: que frente a la adversidad, uno puede sobrevivir y divertirse a pesar de todas las probabilidades porque así lo decide.





En un espíritu de comunidad y colaboración, ESTA BOCA ES MÍA fue traducida por Alexia Veytia-Rubio, una organizadora de justicia de lenguaje que Lupita conoció a través de organizando con el Sindicato de Inquilinos de Los Ángeles. La colección también incluye contribuciones escritas por amigues y camaradas: Beni Avalos,  Mallory Bea, Sara Selevitch y Shabina Toorawa.





“Have I ever told you that Lupita is my favorite poet? Yes? I have? This is a love song by a callejera to callejeras, those of us out in the streets but who love our mamás (the ones that birthed us and the ones who called us into fighting) – I want Lupita's poems at the demo, at the karaoke bar, at the anti-eviction puro pinche parí in that special bleach bright Los Angeles sun.”  
      -   
- Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta,  
author of LA MOVIDA

“Lupita Limón Corrales is the poet I want to follow around at the end of the world. She writes about light like someone who has run their hands through it, and then asked herself ‘how can I share this?’ These poems are spiritual and witty. They're tight and sensory. They're electric with romance but also with a righteous and precise rage. They continously turn in toward the self and then back to the world as natural as an inhale, exhale, gasp, sigh, laugh. Here's a love letter, a dream journal, a map to the city, and a prayer. Let's scare the landlords. Let's open the window, there's a bulldozer, there's your neighbor, there are the roses and they belong to everyone.”  
 
- Jess Rizkallah,
author of the magic my body becomes





Lupita Limón Corrales is a poet, educator, party girl, organizer, interpreter, and karaoke DJ. Her work can be found in dozens of zines and handmade books; on Dublab and Lower Grand Radio; and in Dryland, Protean Magazine, Longreads, and Huizache.


‘EARTH DEBT’ was previously featured on Street Views, a mutual aid newspaper by and for unhoused Angelenos, and ‘QUERUBIN/MOHAWK STREET’ was previously published on an email newsletter for TANC, a newsletter for the Tenant and Neighborhood Councils of the Bay Area. 


May 2024
Language: English / Spanish