{"id":39750,"date":"2025-03-30T10:29:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T16:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/?post_type=book_review&p=39750"},"modified":"2025-03-30T20:17:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:17:46","slug":"__trashed","status":"publish","type":"book_review","link":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/rese\u00f1as\/__trashed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mistaken Place of Things by Gabriela Aguirre, translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania: Eulalia Books, 2024. 513 pages.<\/b>
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"I read many splendid poetry collections in 2024. Still, one that I return to is Laura Cesarco Eglin\u2019s English translation of Mexican poet Gabriela Aguirre\u2019s <\/span>The Mistaken Place of Things. <\/span><\/i>The book opens seven different windows, each with a tantalizing view allowing the reader to observe and watch the poet explore what it means to have a body. Translator Olivia Lott calls Aguirre\u2019s work a \u201cpoetics of estrangement, where the body is \u2018the only staircase available.\u2019\u201d We ascend and descend, taking our time with each step, with each word, with each phrase, as they turn and bend simultaneously with precision and dreaminess.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We start in the Samalyuca Desert, a place almost mythical in its beauty and vastness located in Northern Mexico, and a reference to a text from Peruvian poet Jaime Urco: \u201cI just wanted to write a poem \/ about our trip \/\/ about a hat \/ about the 104 degrees of friendship.\u201d Aguirre\u2019s lines travel corporeal and imagined landscapes, but remain aware of the poet\u2019s spatial existence: \u201cI just want a bit of an audience \/ a microphone at the right volume.\u201d And we are a captive one, following the poets as they guide us through presence and absence\u2014traversing the delicate relationship between Spanish and English. Aguirre writes \u201cSi este cuerpo \/ es lo \u00fanico que tengo \/\/ la \u00fanica escalera \/ disponible.\u201d Cesarco Eglin\u2019s translations listen to the beats of Aguirre\u2019s rhythms and lyricism and create their own pulse, allowing us a unique doorway into the poems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe discover metaphors through the lens of material objects: photographs, dolls, oregano, and, of course, the body.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the translator\u2019s note, Laura Cesarco Eglin says <\/span>The Mistaken Place of Things<\/span><\/i> is \u201cin different scenarios\u2014the desert, photographs, the body, a hospital, dreams, questions, silence\u2014Aguirre delves into the human experience.\u201d As readers, we observe alternate universes, mistakes, and, above all, place, searching through a human existence. The presence of place situates itself throughout the poems, and w<\/span>hile memory and dreams weave themselves throughout the book, there is never nostalgia or sentimentality in the poems. Instead, there are stark reminders of the very real violence that exists for bodies and the anguish of exile. The geopolitics of Mexico are never directly named, and yet we are pierced by their ferocity twice\u2014first through Aguirre\u2019s language and then through Cesarco Eglin\u2019s translation. These are not prayers or supplications, but rather another dimension of interpretation. \u201cPoetry couldn\u2019t save you, my friend: \/ the birds gouged out your eyes \/ before you could even look at me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We discover metaphors through the lens of material objects: photographs, dolls, oregano, and, of course, the body. Limbs are scattered throughout the text, in haunting positions that echo the temporality of our lives, and Aguirre\u2019s lean lines unsettle the simplicity in which they are stated. She ends on a final question that leaves the audience with a tiny cut that continues to bleed: \u201cThe heart probably \/ lives a little in the feet \/ and screams, in the dead skin, that you left. \/ What will you take after taking these legs?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe book opens seven different windows, each with a tantalizing view allowing the reader to observe and watch the poet explore what it means to have a body.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37860,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[],"tags":[5254],"editors":[],"review_sections":[2044],"reviewers":[5332],"translator":[],"editors_pick":[],"lal_author":[],"class_list":["post-39750","book_review","type-book_review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-numero-33","review_sections-poesia","reviewers-monica-teresa-ortiz-es"],"acf":{"richtitle":"The Mistaken Place of Things<\/i> by Gabriela Aguirre, translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin","reviewers":"","title_field":"","issueofarticle":39059,"sidebartitle":"","thumbnail":"","collection-articleimage":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_review\/39750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/book_review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_review\/39750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39754,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book_review\/39750\/revisions\/39754"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/39059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"editors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editors?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"review_sections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_sections?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"reviewers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reviewers?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"editors_pick","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editors_pick?post=39750"},{"taxonomy":"lal_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lal_author?post=39750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}