Sandra María Esteves Quotes

The poet is a truth bearer of reality and image. We live in a society of denial that doesn't want to see or hear these truth tales, so consequently poets are shunned to a great degree because people don't always want to hear the truth.

Bureaucrats shifting responsibility,/shuffling lives into despair

suspended from the high branches of an old wisdom tree

How I love to listen./Remind myself there is more to the world./How I have learned to grow from it.

When I started writing, there were only two women writers that I knew: Lorraine Sutton and Margie Simmons. There were very few Latinas writing in English... So when I started, I was mainly surrounded by men-Pedro Pietri, Jesus Papoleto Melendez, Lucky Cienfuegos, Miguel Algarín, Miguel Piñero, Tato Laviera. Many of them had books already published. I was like a sponge, absorbing different things from these male contemporaries.

Discovering new meanings for old words/listed in the encyclopedia of colonialism.

I'm definitely English dominant. I've learned to think and feel in English, although on occasions Spanish comes back.

The inner life has no boundaries

I think there are many people out there who are ready and want to embrace a multicultural ideology.

My position is that people should be able to determine for themselves. I believe in the right of choice and self-determination. I also believe that people should not be exploited unless they agree to it. And who does?

There is the argument that anyone's writing is meant to be shared with the universe. I want to die knowing that my children are going to have some kind of legacy because this is all I have to give-my work.

I write visually. I'm a painter who uses words.

We have only to look at the devastation reaped upon Vieques to understand why we have to demand our autonomy.

Sometimes, within the African American community, being Latina can be a liability rather than an asset. But then, that's why it's important to know our history, to know how we are connected, how we are victims of the diaspora that divided our families and plunged us into ideas of segregation and disunity. It's so important to know our history to overcome the misconceptions about race and culture.

See for yourself/the you inside no one else can see.