Part 2, Chapter 5

The fifth section of poetry is titled “Animas.”

The first poem, “La curandera,” details how the speaker became a healer. After she grew sick, a healer was sent for, but the healer was found dead. The speaker herself then died but was resurrected when Juan Davila prayed for her. The speaker then saw serpents crawling on her floor, who introduced themselves as her “healing spirit guides.” She began to cultivate healing herbs and took Juan Davila as her apprentice.

The second poem, “Mujer cacto,” compares a woman of the desert to a cactus. She is thorny and has developed numerous ways to protect herself. However, she does not necessarily live long, and she also possesses a predatory and destructive nature.

In the third poem, “Cuyamaca,” the speaker describes seeing land for sale in the Southwest. However, Indigenous people are confined to reservations, denied access to the land they used to live on. She also describes her encounter with an Indigenous woman from a nearly extinct tribe, who she later sees “behind glass in the museum.”

In the fourth poem, “My Black Angelos,” the speaker encounters a woman, possibly La Llorona, crying for a dead child or a lost lover. The woman has talons and a snake’s tongue, and she possesses the speaker. The two then fly through the night sky, roaming “with the souls of the dead.”

In the fifth poem, “Creature of Darkness,” the speaker describes her seclusion in the aftermath of grief. She withdraws from her friends and family and comes to be at war with herself. Part of her wants to escape from the darkness, while the other part has become “a creature at home in the dark.”

In the sixth poem, “Antigua, mi diosa,” the speaker interacts with her goddess, Antigua, who forces an awakening upon her. Antigua’s claws tear the speaker apart, opening her up to her feelings. However, this forceful opening is painful, and the speaker is left to contend with the pain while crying out to Antigua for help.

Part 2, Chapter 6

The sixth section of poetry is titled “El Retorno,” or “The Return.”

In the first poem, “Arriba mi gente,” the speaker sings to her people and encourages them to join together. “Mi gente” translates to “my people,” and the speaker tells them to wake up and help her free all people from their oppression.

In the second poem, “To live in the borderlands means you,” the speaker describes what it means to live in a borderland between identities. Those who occupy the space between races often have claim to both all and none of their heritage. They are left adrift, forced to resist vices such as alcohol and suicide. She concludes that in order to successfully thrive in the borderlands, people must make themselves into “a crossroads,” increasing connection between races and cultures rather than remaining adrift.

The third poem, “Canción de la diosa de la noche,” is an invocation of the dark spirits and goddesses. The speaker journeys through the spirit realm, renouncing her “fealty to nature” and instead discovering her “kindred spirits.” She calls on all of those in tune with these spirits to “don the feathered mantle / and change our fate.”

The fourth poem, “Don’t give in, Chicanita,” is addressed to young Chicana girls, urging them not to give up. The speaker acknowledges that for now, life is tough. Chicanos are economically and socially disadvantaged, and white people continue to hoard the land. However, the speaker states that white people can never “take that pride of being mexicana-Chicana-tejana / nor our Indian...