Rebozos by Carmen Tafolla (review)

Carmen Tafolla’s Rebozos captures the multiple meanings of the rebozo—the Mexican shawl. As Tafolla states in the introduction, this shawl can be used to carry children, cover the dead, protect against the weather, cart fruits and vegetables, and offer privacy. Most importantly, Tafolla asserts that the rebozo is a thread connecting Mexican and Mexican-American women through the folds of history, landscapes, cultures, languages, and classes. In this sense, her poems highlight the garment as a physical testimony and creative expression of womanhood. Accompanied by Catalina Gárate García’s oil paintings, Tafolla’s bilingual volume of sixteen poems profoundly demonstrates the strength and beauty of women who use the rebozo in their everyday lives.

The first poem of the collection, “Mujeres del Rebozo Rojo” (Women of the Red Rebozo), starts the tone for the rebozo as a symbol of women’s transformation. Here, the use of the rebozo gives women the ability to grow, awaken, and spread their “wings.” The corresponding painting adds further depth of the commanding presence of the rebozo as it displays a woman against an intense background of diverse hues of red. As it drapes upon her shoulders, the shawl evokes the spirit, resistance, and passion of women who can display their “inner colors” and become their “real” selves.

The protecting power of the rebozo is also featured in “They Call Me Soledad.” In this poem, the child servant named Soledad (solitude in Spanish) wears the shawl to shield her from the numerous challenges in life. Used as a thick armor, the rebozo conceals Soledad’s face to mask her unhappiness and loneliness from the public. Yet, it also keeps her physically and emotionally isolated from seeing and talking to others. Tafolla’s image of the child servant that finds some solace in the rebozo is poignant and memorable, perhaps made even more compelling by the faceless child in the interwoven painting. Tafolla leaves readers with the understanding that Soledad represents the many exploited child workers who bear their injustices with a mental and physical resilience—an inner reserve of strength due, in part, to wearing the rebozo.

Tafolla’s depiction of the rebozo reaches a great intensity in “To Juan.” In this poem, the shawl is linked to the women who participated in the Mexican Revolution. As she uses the rebozo as a bed, the speaker can also utilize it as a weapon or political statement. The poem also links the rebozo to the speaker’s love interest, Juan, and the bloodshed during war. As seen throughout the collection, Gárate García’s painting significantly contributes to the scope of the poem. The portrait of a woman with outstretched arms and a bright red rebozo whipping across her head, shoulders, and waist accentuates the carnage of war. In addition, the dizzying strokes replicate the variable purposes of the rebozo and the frenzied emotions of the speaker.

Since her overall aim is to emphasize the various interpretations of the rebozo, Tafolla focuses on its connection with women and their emotions and body towards the end of the text. In “The Other Side of Tired,” the shawl acts as a protective blanket to soothe the speaker’s weary body. It also comforts the crestfallen speaker who is on the verge of a physical and emotional collapse in “Longing.” Tafolla demonstrates that the fabric of the shawl, the weaving of the numerous strands of thread, can carry women through physical exhaustion and mental grief. The last poem, “You Can Tell We’re Related,” ties the rebozo to the lifecycle of nature and women. Similar to the earth’s seasons of the “dead” of winter and “rebirth” of spring, the shawl also covers the dead to “care for them” and wraps newborns. As she envisions herself eventually enveloped in the “sky blue rebozo” of the heavens, the speaker sees the end of her life as an intersection between the shawl itself and “soft brown earth.” Tafolla’s final image composes the rebozo as a shroud to enclose the speaker’s body as...