Intervenir/Intervene
Dolores Dorantes & Rodrigo Flores Sánchez
translated by Jen Hofer
Poetry | $17 $14
Fall 2015
Buy"... imagine an intervention between the body and that which destroys it " — Daniel Borzutsky
Intervenir/Intervene is a searing, tender, unflinching collaboration between two Mexican poets—Dolores Dorantes, who lived in Ciudad Juárez for 25 years and now has political asylum in Los Angeles, and Rodrigo Flores Sánchez, who lives in Mexico City. Intervenir/Intervene asks questions no one should have to ask: in a climate of state-sponsored violence, what kinds of speech, writing, relation are possible? We are being intervened. How do we collaborate? How do we resist?
Intervenir/Intervene es una colaboración mordaz, tierna e impávida entre dos poetas mexicanos—Dolores Dorantes, que vivió 25 años en Ciudad Juárez y ahora tiene asilo político en Los Ángeles, y Rodrigo Flores Sánchez, que vive en la Ciudad de México. Intervenir/Intervene hace preguntas que nadie debería verse obligado a preguntar: en un clima de violencia promovida por el Estado, ¿qué tipos de expresión, de escritura, de relación, son posibles? Estamos siendo intervenidos. ¿Cómo colaboramos? ¿Cómo resistimos?
Excerpt
[excerpt]
La poesía se me olvida
como se me olvidó tu cuerpo reventado:
CON LA BOCA
HACIA ABAJO
Escriba “el rostro de mi amor en la tierra”
Escriba “¿qué te hicieron, amor?”
Escriba “al cuerpo de mi amor lo encontré sin un dedo:"
OFICIAL
*
I forget poetry
just like I forgot your burst body:
WITH ITS FACE
DOWN
Write “my love’s face in the dirt”
Write “what did they do to you, love?”
Write “I found my love’s body missing a finger:”
OFFICER
About the Author
Dolores Dorantes’ books include Querida fábrica (Práctica Mortal, CONACULTA, 2012), Estilo (Mano Santa Editores, 2011), and sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a bilingual edition of books two and three of Dolores Dorantes (trans. Jen Hofer, Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions, 2008). Dorantes lived in Ciudad Juárez for 25 years, and currently lives in Los Angeles where she teaches workshops in autobiographical writing through Proyecto Sur Los Ángeles and co-curates a Spanish-language section at The Last Bookstore called La Última.
Los libros de Dolores Dorantes incluyen Querida fábrica (Práctica Mortal, CONACULTA, 2012), Estilo (Mano Santa Editores, 2011), y sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, una edición bilingüe de libros dos y tres de Dolores Dorantes (trans. Jen Hofer, Counterpath Press y Kenning Editions, 2008). Dorantes vivió en Ciudad Juárez durante 25 años, y actualmente vive en Los Ángeles, donde da talleres de escritura autobiográfica con Proyecto Sur Los Ángeles y es co-curadora de una sección de libros en español en The Last Bookstore que se llama La Última.
Rodrigo Flores Sánchez (Mexico City, 1977) is the author of the poetry volumes estimado cliente (Lapsus, 2005 and Bonobos/Setenta, 2007), baterías (Invisible, 2006), Zalagarda (Mano Santa, 2011), and Tianguis (Almadía, 2013). Excerpts from Intervenir, a collaboration with Dolores Dorantes, have been published in a number of journals, including Aufgabe and Mandorla. His writing has been translated into English, Portuguese, Catalán and Swedish; his translations into Spanish include works by Wallace Stevens, Jack Spicer, Muriel Rukeyser, Gertrude Stein and Hannah Weiner.
Rodrigo Flores Sánchez (ciudad de México, 1977) es autor de los libros de poesía estimado cliente (Lapsus, Uruguay, 2005 y Bonobos/Setenta, México 2007), baterías (Invisible, México, 2006), Zalagarda (Mano Santa, México, 2011) y Tianguis (Almadía, México, 2013). Intervenir, libro escrito en colaboración con Dolores Dorantes, ha aparecido en distintas publicaciones. Asimismo textos suyos han sido traducidos al inglés, portugués, catalán y sueco. Ha traducido textos de Wallace Stevens, Jack Spicer, Muriel Rukeyser, Gertrude Stein y Hannah Weiner.
About the Translator
Jen Hofer is a Los Angeles-based poet, translator, social justice interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, urban cyclist, and co-founder of the language justice and literary experimentation collaborative Antena. Her recent and forthcoming books are available from a range of small presses, including Action Books, Atelos, Counterpath Press, Dusie Books, Insert Blanc Press, Kenning Editions, Les Figues Press, Litmus Press, Little Red Leaves, Palm Press, and Subpress. She teaches poetics, translation and tiny press practices at CalArts and Otis College.
Jen Hofer vive en Los Ángeles, donde escribe poesía, traduce del español, trabaja como intérprete y maestra, teje, hace libros a mano, escribe cartas en la calle en su escritorio público, es bicicletista urbana, y es co-fundador del colectivo de justicia del lenguaje y experimentación literaria Antena. Sus libros publicados y por publicarse se encuentran en varias editoriales independientes: Action Books, Atelos, Counterpath Press, Dusie Books, Insert Blanc Press, Kenning Editions, Les Figues Press, Litmus Press, Little Red Leaves, Palm Press, y Subpress. Da clases de poética, de traducción, y de práticas editoriales autónomas en CalArts y en Otis College.
Links
Dolores DorantesAntena, a language justice collaborative founded in 2010
Antena Los Ángeles
Zalagarda
DD + RF - Intervenir
Book Details
Trade PaperbackPerfect-bound. 200 pp, 5.75 x 8 in.
ISBN 978-1-937027-41-4
Publication Date: August 1, 2015
Distribution: SPD/PGC (Canada)
Series: Dossier
Funding: New York State Council on the Arts.
- 06.16.16 | Dolores Dorantes & Rodrigo Flores Sánchez's Intervene reviewed by Vincent Francone in Three Percent
- 1.12.16 | Diana's Tree and Intervenir/Intervene Reviewed by Ian Baran for NYPL
- 12.17.15 | Intervenir/Intervene and The Green Ray included on Entropy's Best of 2015 Poetry
- 10.06.15 | Dolores Dorantes & Rodrigo Flores Sánchez's Intervenir/Intervene reviewed in Publisher's Weekly
- 03.25.14 | Gro Dahle and Dolores Dorantes discussed in Montevidayo
- 1.24.14 | Dolores Dorantes and Rodrigo Flores Sánchez discuss Intervene with Guillermo Parra on The Best American Poetry Blog
News and Reviews
Advance Praise
Dolores Dorantes and Rodrigo Flores Sánchez ask us to imagine an intervention between the body and that which destroys it, an intervention in the space between the body and the love that sustains it. They intervene in the unspeakable and what their remarkable translator-interventionist Jen Hofer calls “the imperative to speak.” In the face of one person's disappearance there is, as Hofer writes, “nothing to say.” Just as there is nothing to say in the face of thousands of disappearances. And if the poem, as it invokes the unspeakable response, is to do anything at all, it must do so with a force that is itself unspeakable.—Daniel Borzutsky
“Poetry,” the authors tell us, “is a tomb,” and in this tomb there are voices speaking up to us as they are buried in the dirt and sand. “Hate,” write Dorantes and Flores Sánchez, “gives us hope,” a phrase that has intervened in my conception of myself, in the logic of how I operate. Here, in Intervenir/Intervene, when “everything has disappeared....There are translations.”
How we write about disappearance, murder and massacre is an unsolvable problem that requires an irreplicable mixture of honesty, empathy, love, strength and fear that is evident and alive in this beautiful, powerful work by Dorantes, Flores Sánchez and Hofer.