-
Laboring Histories: The “Reconciliation” of Maternity in the Poetry of Laurie Ann Guerrero
- Diálogo
- Center for Latino Research, DePaul University
- Volume 17, Number 2, Fall 2014
- pp. 57-64
- 10.1353/dlg.2014.0054
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of “facultad,” this study of poetry by Laurie Ann Guerrero identifies an emergent “maternal facultad,” a consciousness honed through the bodily and social experiences of mestiza maternity. Guerrero’s poems, “Babies Under the Skin” and “Reconciliation,” reveal how such consciousness is ignited through the mother’s body; her transformed body and subjectivity implicate her in multiple histories and violences of colonization and the medical/birthing industry. This study argues for the need for mothers to continue writing their bodies—to speak the “mess” of the body and of mother-work—creating an epistemically fertile site of knowledge production.