The Mexican-American poet’s newest book dives deep into love for family and friends

“there’s two ways to be a Mexican writer

that we’ve discovered so far.”

 (Ode to Tortillas lines 1-2)

The opening line to “Ode to Tortillas” by Jose Olivarez was first published in The Atlantic in 2021. Now, it’s a part of his newest book, Promises of Gold, a collection of his poetry written over the course of four years.

“I never know what I’m going to write about when I sit down,” Olivarez told Pueblo. “I just kind of sit down to write and start writing little lines, typing out words, but eventually what happens is I’ll type a word or a phrase and it’ll open up a pathway, a door to the subconscious, something that is emotionally alive within me.” 

The concept of ni de aquí, ni de allá appears frequently in Promises of Gold. Growing up in Calumet City, Illinois, to Mexican parents, Olivarez’s poetry has frequently encompassed different aspects of being Latinx. His first book, Citizen Illegal, was published in 2018 and explored being Mexican-American and the joys and conflict that come with having two identities. Promises of Gold, however, explores new meanings in Mexican-American life.

When Olivarez began writing poems for his new book, he strived to write about friendship. Many poems, he said, focus on romantic love. He wanted to write poetry “for the homies.” Then the pandemic hit, and both of his parents 800 miles away contracted COVID.

“I didn’t know if they would recover or not,” said Olivarez. “The mortality rates were through the roof, so I really was living that whole time scared that I might never see them again.”

His parents recovered, and Olivarez changed his plans for the book. Rather than being poems exclusively highlighting love for his friends, he also wrote poems about his parents. A poem about the invisible masks his mother wears and how they have different definitions of love, another about his father’s love for a basketball game and Olivarez’s love for his father in that moment.

“I’m always trying to think about them as holistically as possible,” said Olivarez. “I want to make sure that I consider the full scope of their humanity to the best of my ability, including what I don’t know about them.”

you can be the Mexican writer who writes about tortillas

or you can be the Mexican writer who writes about croissants

instead of the tortillas on their plate. (Ode to Tortillas lines 3-5)

“[In Mexico] I would be like, it feels so good to be home and they’d be like, you’re not home, you’re visiting,” Olivarez said. “I think that did make me feel a little bit lonely. But in that loneliness, I discovered a whole community of people that are like me in some ways … that is the place where a lot is possible. That’s the place where we can reckon with the, kind of, trauma of ancestry but also the beauty of ancestry.”

Olivarez’s purpose for Promises of Gold was to write love poems for his friends. However, his poems aren’t some sort of members-only club. Topics that he describes like loneliness, family and being stuck in the middle are not exclusive to just him and the people in his life. 

“Certainly there are times when I don’t belong,” said Olivarez. “But, I mean, there are times where I feel like I don’t belong in any room that I’m in. You know, I don’t think that’s unique to Latinidad … I think sometimes we react too strongly to those feelings of being left out. I know I did.”

there’s two ways to be a Mexican writer that are true

& tested. you can write about migration

or you can write about migration.

(can you be a Mexican writer if you never migrated?

if your family never migrated?) (Ode to Tortillas lines 7-11)

Migration has long been a crucial part of the Latinx experience in the United States. Regardless of one’s immigration status, the impact of migration is so intense that it continuously bleeds into Latin American art. In Promises of Gold, Olivarez describes the migration experience and his parents’ struggles.

“My parents would talk to me all the time about sacrificio, right, and what it meant for them to make sacrifices to come to the United States for me and my brothers,” Olivarez said. “They don’t regret anything. And so I think knowing that they don’t regret their choices makes it easier for me to live without guilt.”

there’s two ways to be a Mexican writer. you can translate

from Spanish. or you can translate to Spanish.

or you can refuse to translate altogether. (Ode to Tortillas lines 12-14)

All of Olivarez’s poetry is written in English. However, turning Promises of Gold backwards and upside down reveals the complete collection of his poems in Spanish, translated by poet David Ruano Gonzalez. 

“When I did the translation, I thought about how his parents had never read them and they were in my mind all the time,” wrote Ruano. “Days after the book was published, [Olivarez] sent me a picture of his mom reading the poems in Spanish and I felt that my work meant something. And just like his mom, there are other moms, grandmas, grandpas, uncles and aunts that have not had the opportunity to read literature that tells their story.”

Since many of Olivarez’s poems touch on his Mexican-American heritage, he was eager for his poems to be printed in both English and Spanish.

“Growing up, I was never able to share anything that I was learning in school with my parents because I was reading books in English and my parents read and wrote in Spanish,” said Olivarez. “I had one of my homies who’s my age sent me a text and she was like, ‘I just realized I could have a book club with my dad because your book is in Spanish and English,’ right? You know, my mom just texted me that she just finished reading the book. To be able to share those moments for me personally with my mom and dad, to be able to have them read the poems is deeply meaningful to me, and for other people to be able to share that experience is deeply meaningful.”

With Olivarez’s goal of writing love poems for his family and friends, bridging the language barrier of his poetry impacts not only his family but all of his readers and fans. 

“Here in Mexico, it is often said that poets write for other poets, and Jose’s poetry isn’t like that,” wrote Ruano. “His poems are for everyone, and now there is the opportunity to read them in Spanish. It opens a lot of reading possibilities.”

there’s infinite ways to eat a tortilla…

my people: if i have children, i will teach them

about tortillas, but i’m sure they’ll want McDonald’s. (Ode to Tortillas lines 23, 42-43)

“I wouldn’t be mad if my hypothetical children decided that they liked McDonald’s over tortillas,” said Olivarez. “I think it’s absurd that we ask people to be hyper-rigid about culture and identity. I think that fluidity is beautiful and is tender and funny and I think it’s something that we should allow for and not try to punish.”

Olivarez’s poem “Ode to Tortillas” encompasses the ways to be a Mexican writer. Through remaining true to your heritage, translation and migration or lack thereof, his poetry in Promises of Gold smoothly reveals insight into his life and how he moves through it.

“You know, I love reading a poem by Natalie Diaz and specifically she has a poem about watching her lover eat an apple,” said Olivarez. “You go into that poem, maybe expecting one thing or the other, but the poem has a specific type of seduction that I think is really beautiful and powerful.

“So, for me, those are the poems that I love reading. Poems that make me see the world in a new way, that make me appreciate the way the artist sees the world, what they notice, what they hear. I’m trying to write poems in that same tradition.”

Header illustration by Yù Yù Zander