Red Hot Salsa Journal

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States, by Lori Marie Carlson is a collection of poems that depict the difficulty that may be experienced by some Latinos. The poets also write about love, family, and even food. I absolutely loved "My Shortest Food Poem" by Trinidad Sanchez, Sr.


Some Latinos that live in the United States feel that they must straddle the culture of their native land and that of the United States, never being truly American or Latino. This is depicted in the poem, "I am Who I am by, So What" Raquel Valle Senties.


I am a grafted Flower that didn't'
take, a Mexican without being one,
an American without being one.


Not only are these poems written for Latinos, but the messages in these poems are relevant for many. When I read this poem, I thought about my dad's grandparents that came to the United States from Germany. I also thought about a time when I felt like I did not fit in anywhere. I think that these poems are great for anyone. I enjoyed them and I am not Latino.

I think that the fact that the poems are written in English and Spanish allows not only students that are learning English see the language in print next to the Spanish version, I think that is allows the reader to see the beautiful words in more than one language. My Spanish is not that great, but I was able to translate most of the poems (with the English version for help) and see what language looks like from a different perspective. Does that make any sense? It does to me.


I really enjoyed the collection of poetry. I think it would be interesting to let students create their own collection of poetry and see what poems they would use.