Introduction by Anna Daniels
Sandra María Esteves is a madrina–founder– of the Nuyorican poetry movement that began operating out of East Village cafés in the 1970’s. She describes herself as a “Puerto Rican-Dominican-Boriqueña- Quisqueyana-Taino-African-American,” born and raised in the Bronx. She asks in her poem Not Neither:
Being Puertorriqueña Dominicana
Born in the Bronx, not really jibara
Not really hablando bien
But yet, not Gringa either
Pero ni portorra, pero si portorra too
Pero ni que what am I?
Her explorations of identify are as informed by the Civil Rights and liberation movements of minorities and women as by her own personal heritage.