| Over the years poetry has been a source of cultural identity
and healing. Evangelina Vasquez's poems bear witness to the
fact that you never lose your roots, no matter where you are,
or the ones you love, regardless of death. From her
introduction to PASSING ANGEL, she writes, "When my
daughter Leslie died on a hot summer afternoon, in the pool of
our house in Monterey Park, California, a part of myself died
too." Not only did she suffer the anguish of losing her baby but
also her relationship with God.
But "through the magic of pencil and paper," Vasquez started to write letters and poems to Leslie, and in the process, an often agonizing spiritual journey, discovered her way back to love, acceptance, and reconciliation. This book of letters and poems, which spans ten years of self-searching, is a testimony to the Eternal Mystery and religious faith. -Carol Lem |
An excerpt from Passing Angel
January 24, 1989
My dear Leslie:
Today is the anniversary of the death of your grandpa Manuel, once more. He left too soon. If he had known you on this earth, he would have made you a kite with the reeds of the rivers' shores. He would have drawn a white butterfly on it and a multicolor flag, and he would have flown it, Diana, so that you could see it and be delighted, seeing it float in the warm air of the countryside, and how this got lost among the white clouds of autumn, there, high, very high, Diana, where you must be.
Sometimes I ask myself: Is fall going to take me? I was born in it. Diana, your name resounds in my ears like the tolling of bells at sunset when it rained, and busy, I crossed the big plaza planning my future. The languages men invent sound so phony!
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