My Nana's Hands

By Elodia E Benitez, Rosanna Alvarez and Brenda Vaca

Elodia Esperanza Benitez is a Mexican-American poet from Gilroy, California who brings the strength of her ancestors and heritage to her work. She began writing at an early age as a way of processing her experiences and thos

• Language: English
• Publisher: Riot of Roses Publishing House LLC
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781961717077

Book preview

Praise for My Nana’s Hands

Elodia Esperanza Benitez’s poetry collection, My Nana’s Hands sings with the music of her neighborhood, because it is the music of her heart. We are held by her loving and powerful Nana’s hands, guided by her strength and her wisdom. We get to taste sopa de Estrella, and salivate over delicious tamales and chisme. We get to hang out with the tías, tíos and primas at family parties. There are also moments of quiet reflection and longing, moms that have to work a lot, brothers that get caught up in an unjust system, absent fathers, and violent men. We see the sights unique to the central valley, the farmworkers, the people on the bus Number 68. All told with the sharp eyes of a poeta who understands her community and brings them to page as a sentinel of memory, to spread semillas we leave behind, water them to grow for tomorrows garden. We remember the garden, we remember the women, we remember their sacrifice and love. It’s a powerful chorus of women that shout from the page. I hear them, I hear them in my bones, that is the power of being your own hero, of being re-conquistadoras, takers of what you said they can’t have. These poems transport you in time and place. Isn’t that what we do? We bend time and space to tell our stories. You will feel the oldies and the drums beat. What a bendición to read these words!

-Jesenia Chavez, Author of This Poem Might Save You (Me)

Elodia Benitez’s poetry is so vivid and descriptive, it takes me back to the days when I laid in bed and pinched my own grandmother’s hands, hands that were also like cinnamon freckled pillows. I can hear and feel and smell the hustle and bustle of crowded houses where families gather, children play, and ordinary Mexican dishes come to life, transforming a simple sopa de letras into a sea of stars. All of these poems are planted memories, memories which Elodia’s Nana planted deep within the author herself, memories that Elodia lovingly harvests, bringing to the table colores y sabores that we can all cherish.

-Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, Author of West of the Santa Ana and Other Sacred Places

Elodia Benitez’s memoir-in-verse takes the reader down emotional avenue after emotional highway. Benitez has the reader travel from San Ysidro to Gilroy, among other areas, as they appear, back-in-time. Nana Julia is luminous all around, whether she is making tamales or planting roses of wisdom for her kin. With that saying, Never let a poet lie to you, in mind, it is clear the narrator is not lying to us about someone who is truly selfless. Nana is alive in verse for her families, family friends, and readers’ future generations.

-Jesse Tovar, Editor, Lit Stack, litstack.substack.com

Published by Riot of Roses Publishing House

My Nana’s Hands

Copyright © 2023, Elodia Esperanza Benitez

ISBN: 978-1-961717-08-4

ISBN: 978-1-961717-07-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921058

Cover Art

©Armando Franco, 2023

First Edition, 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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