DESCRIPTION
ANIMAL FIERO Y TIERNO
fierce and tender animal
by Ángela María Dávila Malavé
translated by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
with unpublished materials
The first book from the Puerto Rican Literature in Translation collection: animal fiero y tierno/fierce and tender animal by Ángela María Dávila Malavé, translated by Poet Laureate of Philadelphia Roque Raquel Salas Rivera.
animal fiero tierno is a powerful lyric collection, where the “I”, as it remains deeply intimate, becomes nonetheless a collectivity, a relation of multiple solitudes. The voice, the hands, the belly, the pinkie finger, are also a dove and a lizard, a blue sun, a globe of earth, animal and light. Originally published in 1977 (Editorial QueAce, Puerto Rico), it has never been translated into English. Roque Raquel Salas Rivera’s translation retains the force of Ángela’s involving rhythm, the delicate combination of the expressive and the colloquial in the language, and makes it resound, fierce and tender, in new Anglophone ears. CENTRO Press is overjoyed and honored to launch its new collection, Puerto Rican Literature in Translation, with this remarkable work of poetry and translation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ángela María Dávila Malavé (1944-2003) was one of the most significant and influential poets in Puerto Rican literature, Ángela María Dávila Malavé or Ángelamaría Dávila, was born on February 21, 1944, in Humacao, Puerto Rico. At the beginning of her literary trajectory, the Boricua in nation, heart, and understanding, was part of the Guajana Group. In 1966, in collaboration with the poet José María Lima, she published the dual-author poetry book, Homenaje al ombligo. A little over a decade later, she published Animal fiero y tierno (qeAse, 1977; 2nd ed. Ediciones Huracán, 1981), her first solo collection. In 2006, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture posthumously published La querencia. Dávila Malavé dedicated her entire life to poetry and fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico, as an international cultural ambassador and through her poetic and musical performances, fulfilling her destiny as a fierce and tender animal. Her spirit departed this world on July 8, 2003, in Río Grande, Puerto Rico.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera (1985—) is a Puerto Rican poet and translator of trans experience born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, his honors include being named Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the Lambda Literary Award, the Premio Nuevas Voces, and the inaugural Ambroggio Prize. The author of six poetry books, he coedited the anthologies Puerto Rico en mi corazón (Anomalous Press, 2019) and La piel del arrecife: Antología de poesía trans puertorriqueña (La Impresora, 2023). His translations include The Rust of History (Circumference Press, 2022), longlisted for ALTA’s National Translation Award, The Book of Conjurations (Sundial/Columbia University Press, 2024) by Irizelma Robles, winner of the Sundial Literary Translation Award, and the anthology Hijas de América Latina (ed. Sandra Guzmán, HarperCollins, 2023). His translation of Ada Limón’s poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will be traveling to Jupiter’s moon in 2024. He lives, teaches, and creates in Puerto Rico.