Transverse: Altar de Tierra Altar de Sol by Karina Oliva

From the Author:

"Transverse: Alta de Tierra Altar de Sol represents a moment of transition in my life that I place within the long historical legacies of violence experienced through institutionalization, the site of nation, and by the gendered and raced body and social psyche. Transverse is equally about the empowerment passed down to us as we nurture this source of memory and love and raise ourselves and our communities through prayer and action. Allow me movement by reading this book as a chapter, rather than the whole story of me, my relations, and my work. Some of the pieces are more oratory than poetic in form, I have done this purposely to move the story forward while using the tone, form, and function of the literary, oral and "street" cultures that taught me how to speak, think, and create in xochítl in cuicatl. I have tried to correctly spell all indigenous words, though some are spelled phonetically. The two songs, canciónes, I have included are the songs that came to me through prayer which I sing in ceremony. I have changed some of the names and places, while I have attempted to retain the voices and conversations of imagined, and re-imagined, blood and spirit realtives. May this book move all energies of transformation in the sacred circle of self, family, and community.

Ajo. Aja. To all my relations."

- Karina Oliva