This Poem Might Save You (Me) by Jesenia Chávez

As a Chicanita from a big Mexican family, I found great joy in reading and retreating into the pages of books. I remember my sisters and I walking to the tiny Maywood Library (now called the Maywood Cesar Chavez Library) in Southeast Los Angeles and checking books out. But the truth is that I had never seen myself, my family, or my experiences reflected in text until a mentor in high school gave me a copy of Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street.

Reading that book became a defining moment for me. For the first time, I finally felt seen and validated. Cisneros’s stories echoed through my mind and planted a seed of hope. I nurtured that seed in college by writing and reading books and poetry by women of color. I devoured every book I could get my hands on and often read for pleasure rather than the required reading for my courses. (Don’t worry, I still graduated.) 

When the pandemic began, I took up crocheting and gardening like most people. I then realized that there is no time like the present to make our dreams come true. To nurture those parts of ourselves that do not want to die, that do not want to shrivel up into hard rocks of bitterness. I realized que si no ahora, entonces cuando? The only person in my way was me. These poems were born out of a desire to share my stories and the words that keep me up at night. The words that burst out of me, accompany me on walks, and come to me through the voices of my beloved familia. They come as whispers, as shouts, and from the words that were never uttered by my departed loved ones.  These words come from all the women’s voices who must stay silent to survive. They come from the little girl who dreams of seeing her name and words on the spine of a book in the library. 

The beauty is in the process, in the grays, the in-between that children of immigrants feel. The taste of English and Spanish on the tongue. Of hot dogs, tortillas, and weenie con huevo, too. 

These poems are an offering from my soul to yours, and I thank you for supporting a dream. I hope you are inspired, annoyed, amused, and most of all, I hope that you nurture your dreams. Through my collection, This Poem Might Save You (Me), I invite you to take a journey with me.