Renaissance Tejana

[Amalia Ortiz] also cultivates a powerful voice for women from a Latina perspective. Another of my favorites in the collection, "La Matadora," is a brilliant example. The mere act of translating the title demonstrates the irony of the Chicano condition: Literally, it means "female bullfighter," clunky and lacking poetry because of the addition of a word to signify gender. And while our sport of choice, soccer, is underappreciated in the United States, bullfighting is completely misunderstood. But all of that is needed to create the context and nuance for the best translation of the word: "killer." The poem was inspired by Carmen Bermúdez, a Mexican bullfighter who later became a successful businesswoman. Readers will appreciate this and other of Ortiz's tributes to women who have cut their own paths. However, it is the location of "La Matadora" in the book that has the most powerful cultural implications. Ortiz places it in a section with "The Women of Juárez," a poem about the unexplained disappearance of hundreds of women along the U.S.-Mexico border - news that's been lost in the frenzy of media cycles.