Dominican. Believer. Wife. Mother. Immigrant. These are the different labels Rosa Lía Gilbert has learned to embody, in all of their beauty and complexity. In her debut collection,
Under the Samán Tree,
Gilbert takes readers on a journey across the ocean, back to the Dominican Republic, where she longs to be. Along the way, she invites them to walk through the American immigrant experience with her. Written in a lyrical and bilingual voice, these poems will leave the reader nostalgic and even homesick for a place they never knew they longed for, while seeking to answer the questions,
Where do we belong? Does a perfect home exist? Or is it all just a tropical dream?
Full of bursts of life, vibrant Caribbean imagery, and Spanish musicality, Gilbert's collection translates into a universal story of home, exile, and faith, as Whitney Rio-Ross, poetry editor of
Fare Forward
, so aptly applauds.