Content Warning: Mention of femicide.

In the late afternoon of March 27, the Hispanic Studies department proved to the community once more that it is able to maintain its high standards of excellence with the revival of a great Brandeis tradition: Latina Poetry Night. After a long hiatus, Undergraduate Department Representatives Kim Avila ’26 and Travis Finnerty ’27, now under Prof. Lucia Reyes de Deu (HISP), brought the event back to life to highlight Latina poetry. Where the Latin American literary canon often forgets its female origins, this night served, ironically, as a beacon of light that highlights the vitality of frequently overlooked pieces. The event empowered the voices of Latina women both in Latin America and across the Hispanic diaspora while addressing matters of intersectionality, bigotry and resistance. 

The night’s first speaker was Natasha Gutierrez ’26, who read Echagüe’s “Si Me Matan.” Echagüe’s poem demands that the audience denounce femicide and states clearly that being a woman is the only reason for these murders. The United Nations’ Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe notes that at least 3,897 women have fallen victim to femicide in 2023 across Latin American and Caribbean countries.  Nonetheless, it is an unfortunate reality of the Latino context that femicide commonly spreads through media and common conversations with dismissals of the magnitude of misogyny. Latino society will frequently criticize the idea that women are killed for being women, claiming that there is no such thing as femicide because there is no special category for men killed for being men. For instance, the independent journal Serendipia published a piece titled “Dudas sobre el feminicidio: ¿por qué no existen los hombricidios en México” that criticizes laws against femicide, claiming that its criminal motivations could be present in anti-male assassination as well, and therefore the laws would be nonsensical at best and, at worst, discriminatory.  The difference here is that these misogynistic murders occur due to a power imbalance: The woman refuses to be submissive to the male's will and, in a wrathful response, he kills her. 

Echagüe writes with anger and despair, tired of having to be one more author addressing this issue even though Latina women have been denouncing this for centuries. “Que hace siglos denuncie” brings all of these sentiments powerfully and succinctly to the audience. This trend of women being left unheard in their calls for action is a central theme of “Si Me Matan.” If complaints about femicide are ignored, then why would Echagüe write a poem that she knows would cause no difference, where she would not be granted the ethos she deserves? The reason for this poem is established in her last stanza — the poem is not about her own ethos. Instead of writing a poem that focuses on herself, she shifts the spotlight to her audience. She urges readers to amplify her criticism of femicide, makes it our job to fight against societal biases and fight for the dignity of the victims that they were denied in life and, most often, post-mortem: “Gritá bien fuerte que lo hicieron porque soy mujer.” 

Another notable poem read during the event was “Y Dios me hizo mujer” by Gioconda Belli, read by Diana Sola Chacon ’26. Belli’s poem works in congruence with Gutierrez’s but has a sharp shift in perspective. Whereas “Si Me Matan” seeks to fight against misogyny by denouncing the perpetrators, “Y Dios me hizo mujer” opposes misogyny by showcasing the singular beauty of womanhood. From her very first stanza onwards, Belli conveys the notion that women were made by divine forces, that being a woman is a reason to rejoice, for He chose to make them so. She explains how important His creation is for He has made them the instrument of life — “me hizo un taller de seres humanos” — and directly opposes the notion that women are biologically emotionally unstable by claiming that God was the one to shape their emotional responsiveness. He was the one who balanced women’s hormones: “Tejió delicadamente mis nervios/ y balanceó con cuidado/ el número de mis hormonas.” Religion plays an important role in Latin American society, so Belli’s perspective forces the audience to see the contradictions between their piety and holding biases against women.

The last poem that I must write of is the night’s very last, the only one written in English, read by Gutierrez. “The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual” focuses on the Hispanic diaspora in the United States and the social repercussions that the descendants of Hispanic immigrants face. The poem, written by Ada Limón, speaks of the supposedly supportive environments in American culture that, in theory, aim to uplift Hispanic American voices. Limón’s piece showcases the fallacies of these environments and how they only enforce the biases they claim to fight against. She writes of a scenario in which a poet is invited to work with a certain group, only to find out that she was invited to fill a “Hispanic quota” in order for the aforementioned group to receive a grant. This group does not care about truly uplifting the individuals who are of Hispanic descent; they solely want to appear as though they are supportive of what they imagine to be Hispanic culture. 

This notion of what they imagine to be Hispanic is the central tension of Limón’s poem, for the speaker is denied her right to individuality so as to fulfill a stereotype. What they are seeking is a poem in which she is sipping Patrón, where her father is caught stealing, about her family’s lack of English or one where they wore ponchos. These stereotypes enrage Limón as they disrespect every part of her diasporic identity; after all, her father was an English-speaking teacher, was no thief and she seeks to present herself as an English-language poet, not a Spanish one. In her last stanza, Limón writes that the group, which was supposedly there to honor Hispanic American culture, wanted the speaker to write how her father “did the thing/ he was trying to prove he didn’t do.” This group that is supposed to honor Latinos is instead forcing them to prove preconceived notions, degrading them, instead of truly uplifting their stories of Hispanic Identity. The poet shows that many of the environments that appear to empower Hispanic representation have failed the Hispanic American community by only reinforcing preconceived, bigoted notions of Hispanic identity.

Latina Poetry Night was an utter success for the Hispanic Studies Department. It merged academia with practical social issues and movements, advocating for the safety and dignity of Latina women. Whether directly fighting against misogyny or shifting the Latino perspective on womanhood to inherently contradict these biases, the poets and the reciters effectively advocated for women’s social rights in the Latino context. The event showed the power of Latina art and ensured that Brandeis is a part of this centuries-old movement. Congratulations to all involved.