Mónica de la Torre, Self-Translated

Abstract

Abstract A wave of self-translated poetry signals a significant new phase in Latinx literature. This inventive poetry, which seeks to expand translation's creative and theoretical horizons, is attuned to inequities in cultural capital associated with English and Spanish in the United States and to the histories and contemporary contexts responsible for those inequities. My case study is Mónica de la Torre's Repetition Nineteen, which illuminates the complexities of bilingual Mexican American experience and the implications of an author's translating her own work. I argue that Repetition Nineteen is a “transcreation” (Haroldo de Campos's term for creative translation) that critiques transculturation in the United States.