My Mother, the Butcher: Poems Volume 15

In this visceral debut poetry chapbook, My Mother, the Butcher, Mexican American poet, Gerard Robledo, sets his speaker to confront the lasting scars of a traumatic childhood marked by alcoholism, neglect, and emotional cruelty. Undaunted, he dredges the devastating history of familial pain and a mother’s callousness which haunts his daily life as a single father raising a daughter. In the process, he tries to reconcile his cultural and masculine identity with his own truth, as his struggles with alcoholism, religion, and self-worth threaten to consume him. This sincere poetry collection dissects the complexity of generational trauma--fractured parts of the self; the struggle to heal, break free, and find one’s identity. It also presents a necessary perspective on the non-traditional experiences of a single Latino father, the struggles faced, and the beauty of one’s own humanity--even in the face of unrelenting pain.

GERARD ROBLEDO is a Mexican American poet from San Antonio and an Immigrant son. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and teaches at Palo Alto College. His Spanish language poetry translations, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in Voices de la Luna, The Texas Observer, Oyster River Pages, Solstice Magazine, Poetrybay, Vox Populi, and others. He is a Macondo Writers’ Workshop Fellow, and a recipient of the 2020 Eduardo Corral Emerging Latinx Writers Mentorship.