Variations in Blue: Poems

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

Variations in Blue

"Poet Adela Najarro’s Variations in Blue is rich with gratitude for her inheritances despite the suffering which accompanies them. Through poems vibrantly populated by parrots, iguanas, mothers, and abuelitas, it is clear Najarro is a daughter of Nicaragua, with more than a loving nod to ‘the gods and goddesses of volcanoes [who] meet up for a barbeque’ and her own parents who emigrated to the United States. With her eyes on the ‘generations . . . that keep doing the same thing,’ the poet at the center of this book is a survivor, aligning herself not only with other women, but also with the heat at the heart of the volcanoes of Nicaragua. In ekphrasis, persona poems, and laments, Najarro’s artistry alchemizes that survival and heat into hardearned wisdom which simmers on the page."

—Farnaz Fatemi, author of Sister Tongue and Poet Laureate of the city of Santa Cruz, 2023–24

"In Variations in Blue, Adela Najarro paints pictures of impressionable moments in time, emotional residue that is both hazy and absolute in its confidence, and family tales indomitable in its truth. Her poetry is rich with tales of lost family members and memories pulled from a history of migration and identity. In one poem, Najarro describes La Virgen de las Patadas as having ‘hair brown and straight. India, Mexicana, Americana,’ cementing the ideas of complexity in Latinx heritage. Yet, throughout this exploration of identity, Najarro always comes back to the landscape, the ‘lowest branch of the eucalyptus tree,’ the ‘scar of the mountain,’ and the ‘verdant jungle sky,’ as if these poems are incantations being witnessed by the glory and violence too of the nature where, ‘hombres, mujeres, the gendered not, speak the world.’ Here is a book that requires a reader to witness the ‘words and omens as talisman’ and listen, each poem bringing forth its own tale and its own form of invocation of self and absolute certainty."

—Nikia Chaney, author of To Stir & and founder of Jamii Publishing

"Navigating the intersection of Nicaraguan heritage and American life ‘backward in a line / of women before memory and photographs,’ Adela Najarro’s bilingual collection of poetry, Variations in Blue, is a deep well of memory. These poems are sensory, vivid depictions of biodiversity—a country filled with mango trees, freshwater sharks—set against cultural and political turmoil. Ultimately, grounded by heritage and ancestry, Variations in Blue delivers a voice both intimate and resilient."

—Ruben Quesada, author of Brutal Companion

"Poet Adela Najarro brings us in full display an identity affirmation and a mature poetic quest in Variations in Blue. Her ‘todo se confunde’ Spanish translanguaging brings a sumptuous collage of what it really means to be a Latin American woman poet, 100% of each: ‘Where’d the green eyes come from?’ and ‘Latin America. The history. / My eyes from los conquistadores / from collison / and struggle / to survive.’

This poetry collection is a meta history of Central America, from colonization, religion, exploitation, to the present state of life for Latines in the United States: ‘To avoid offending Padre nuestro, on Fridays / during Lent iguana stew is ladled over rice.’

Among desires for mangos and Coca Cola, ‘aphrodisiac iguanas,’ and all the Central American countries, we find the purity of the strongest arrangements of poignant, familiar words turned to poetry in the hands of Adela Najarro—a master wordsmith: ‘with a squirrel / in one limb and an iguana in another.’

Metaphors of her American and Latina self emerge throughout the collection, embracing Chicanos and Nicaraguans alike, as well as all other Latines. Also, her keen eye brings Chicane/Latine art to life in her poetic narrative that raises