About Corazón by Yesika Salgado
A Mini Review
This poetry collection is about the highs and lows of love and heartbreak. The themes are explored in 67 (mostly one-page long) poems over the course of 84 pages.
I immediately noted that the speaker of the collection is a coffee lover who lives in Los Angeles. It’s revealed early in the collection that she is Salvadoran and later in the collection (in the poem Fly Girl) that she’s in her early 30s. The speaker writes about loving her body, falling for problematic men, loving herself and her friends, and the lessons that food and mundane moments bring to her life. In several poems, we get glimpses of her childhood and family. Two of the 67 poems are offered to us in Spanish.
A lot of the poems take place at night, which felt like such an intimate and vulnerable setting. There are poems where the speaker is out dancing at night, having sex, connecting with a stranger on a late night bus ride in Los Angeles, up drunk dialing an ex in the wee hours, or doing what so many of us do: worrying, instead of resting, in the dark.
The speaker of the collection made me think of Aaliyah in Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen. Both Aaliyah and the speaker of Corazón are in their 30s and serious about finding love. They are adventurous daters, who are comfortable in their bodies, but also deal with devastating moments of fatphobia from family members and lovers. If you like how Curvy Girl Summer is a book that shows off the city it’s set in (D.C.), you’ll like the poems in Corazón for the same reason. The speaker clearly feels deeply for her city, Los Angeles.
I was delighted to noticed that Corazón was edited by Safia Elhillo, who is thanked in the Acknowledgments Section and also noted as editor on the copyright page. If you like Elhillo’s The January Children for its themes of love, heartbreak, and home, I think you’ll like Corazón too.
Annotating Guide for Corazón
This collection of poetry has some beautiful and meaningful imagery patterns to annotate. Below are some of my favorite things to annotate and why.
Annotate the Poems with Coffee
9 Tabs Needed for Coffee
- one for the tab key
- p 3 Jenny and I
- p 5 Cafe Con Pan
- p 12 Cumbia (cup imagery)
- p 16 Blind Date
- p 53 Hangover (cup imagery)
- p 71 Bruja
- p 82 Compilation
- p 85 Acknowledgements Section
Annotating Coffee in Books Is One of My Favorite Things
I love noting the coffee culture inside a book. The speaker of Yesika Salgado’s collection is immediately revealed to be a coffee lover. She has coffee rituals and memories, and she sips for comfort while writing through heartbreak.
Annotate the Poems with the Moon
7 Tabs Needed for the Moon
- one for the tab key
- p 11 Moonlighting
- p 16 Blind Date
- p 22 Hand Holding
- p 24 A Kiss
- p 69, p 70 Corazón Heals Herself
- p 71 Bruja
Why I Enjoyed Annotating The Moon
In Corazón, Yesika Salgado explores a theme of reflection from many angels. The moon—a celestial object reflecting the sun’s light down to earth—fits right in with this exploration. Many of the poems take place at night, and the moon is a fixture of the speaker’s restless nights.
Annotate the Poems Where the Speaker Talks About Her Body As a Source of Light
5 Tabs Needed for Body Light
More Annotations Under This Theme
Consider the refraction of light too, not just the innate glow of the speaker’s body. I did not annotate the imagery of refraction (stuff like mirrors, reflection) as carefully, but any poem where the speaker considers herself a mirror or reflecting could/should also be included here.
Annotate The Sensation of “Filling”
6 Tabs Needed for Filling
- one for the tab key
- p 5 Cafe Con Pan / Highlight: “filling everything”
- p 11 Moonlighting / Highlight: “I write about love so much it fills a room”
- p 30 Dulzura / Highlight: “have they filled you with so much dulce you thought you would burst?
- p 84 Compilation “I fill / and fill / and fill/ and fill / and / fill”
Why I Annotated The Detail of Filling
Fill is a word I associate easily with love. The heart fills with love, with blood, with pain. Sometimes love leaves us full and satisfied. Sometimes heartbreak leaves us empty like a husk. I loved noticing the word fill in various poems, but most especially when the final poem put repeated emphasis on “filling vs. emptiness.” To end with repeated mentions of the word fill felt very important, especially since it had come up in previous poems.
Other Annotating Ideas
I annotated poems that directly mentioned teeth and, of course, poems that mentioned the title: hearts!
Annotate With Sara 