SAN
JUAN, PUERTO RICO-- Two years after Hurricane María devastated the island of Puerto
Rico, Puerto Rican poet Elidio La Torre Lagares releases Wonderful
Wasteland and other natural disasters (Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky, 2019) a collection of poems that ponder on material loss, death, and
personal struggle during and after the tragic event.
Drawing
from both American and Latin American poetry, as well as global influences, the
book articulates a language of loss and devastation in the reconciliation of
identities. This collection illuminates a chaotic and confusing landscape that
is not only physical but also cultural, social, and political.
On
September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico faced the wrath of one of the worst storms in
the history of the Caribbean: Hurricane María. More than 4,000 American
citizens perished due to the direct effects of the hurricane or under the
conditions generated by the storm. Scarcity of food, water, and hope, added to
the delay of rescue efforts and humanitarian aid. La Torre’s book amplifies
transformation from the personal to the social during this period.
“I
began writing these poems as a form of catharsis, as a depuration of emotions
and feelings,” La Torre Lagares has said. “The poems try to cope with disaster
reality and the sequestration of this traumatic experience. All we had left
after the hurricane was a wasteland and the will to survive.”
Taken
together, Wonderful Wasteland serves as a stirring reminder of the
dislocation and fractured attachment that speaks to many Americans, including
transnationals and immigrants. Ultimately it speaks to coping with
physical loss and emotional pain in the face of human adversity.
La
Torre Lagares is a Puerto Rican poet who endured the lavishing conditions in
the aftermath of the hurricane, a time when he also lost his father. He has
published several poetry books in Spanish, and a novel titled Correr tras el
viento (Terranova, 2011) and is currently working on the release of his
novel The Gravity of Loss. Wonderful Wasteland is his first
collection of poems written in English.
