Red Seed: Poems for Luno

Cruz Alejandra Lucas Juárez (trans. Wendy Call & Whitney DeVos)

Mexican poet Cruz Alejandra Lucas Juárez is the first woman to publish a bilingual Tutunakú-Spanish book of poetry; this trilingual chapbook draws from Xlaktsuman papa’ / Las hijas del Luno (2021), her debut poetry collection. The subtitle, “Poems for Luno,” uses the masculine version of the Spanish word for moon (the feminine “luna”), referencing the Tutunakú belief that the moon (papa’) is the metaphorical father of all women. Papa’ / Luno bestows the gift of their womanhood, as regulator of the menstrual cycle; his monthly arrival is characterized as an amorous affair. This erotic relation is celebrated in Lucas Juárez’s poems, which weave together images of Luno as he appears to the speaker—and to her maternal ancestors—in dreams, quotidian moments, and Tukunakú stories.