She writes to feel: a Slice of Yolanda Rodríguez’s Life

My 'home' tounges are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, with my friends." Gloria Anzaldúa

  

Yolanda Rodríguez grew up reading “boring anthologies”, inhabited by characters that did not reflect her life in the mountains of Puerto Rico.  As a child, she was very much aware that these schoolbooks were not as inspiring as her family’s gift for story telling.  Thanks to them, and particularly to her father, she learned to love the Spanish language.

In 1997, Yolanda moved to New York City, and soon realized that her solid sense of self would undergo a major transformation. "Being an educated Puerto Rican woman and an independentista was not enough to survive in this city", she explains. "I needed to learn a new language and understand the new culture. I needed to find myself in a different way.  The struggle with the English language shook my core.  Language became this force…this being. Language became [my] identity.”

While taking English courses at Hunter College, Yolanda met Professor Yvonne De Gaetano, then the head of the Bilingual Education Department, who encouraged her to pursue a Master’s in Education with a bilingual extension. Courses like Psycholinguistics and the theories of Second Language Acquisition, some taught by professor De Gaetano and Migdalia Romero, allowed her to better understand that “…it was normal to struggle; that accents were a blessing and the new bilingual Yolanda did not have to be afraid." It is also during this period that writing “became the personal battle field”, where she struggled with the insecurities that surfaced upon meeting people that misjudged her as soon as they hear her “accent”.

Yolanda is now an experienced bilingual teacher, and co-directs Visiones Culturales (VC), an organization that “believes in Latino/Hispanic art and culture as a medium to express who we are and to preserve our self worth.”  This past September, VC launched a wonderful collective exhibit called Passages, which gathered the artwork of 20 Latino artists at the Andrew Freedman Home, in the Bronx.  For this art show, Yolanda worked on some of the most intimate texts (found in old journals) for the creation of a bilingual poetry book entitled Alma Derramada/Spilled Soul.  This limited handmade edition delves into her desire for love and intimacy. 

Her next book presentation will be held at La Casa Azul on December 19^th, at 6:00pm., together with the friends and mentors that will read her work. There will be a musical performance by Opposite Parts.  ¡Quedan todos invitados la fiesta!

Poemario de Yolanda Luz Rodríguez, traducido al inglés por Michelle Dorani De Jesús.
Diseño hecho por Yarisa, Josué Guarionex y Yolanda.

For more information about her poetry, please visit: www.thesoundsofmialma.com.