Abstract. The work of Lorna Dee Cervantes, a major writer in Chicano literature, constitutes a testimonial Poetics centered on the historical experiences of dispossession and extraterritoriality, experiences that are crystallized in her poetic language as scars of her border identity. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these scars of Chicano poetic language in order to demonstrate their political and aesthetic value as essential cultural instruments for thinking the complex and profuse relationship between poetry and testimony within the Latin American and Latino literary tradition.
Keywords:
Lorna Dee Cervantes; Chicano poetry; testimony; Latino literature; Latin American literature