Esteban Rodríguez

The Bags We Carry

Arts & Literature

“In his newest poetry collection, Harold Recinos’s speaker carries with him the literal and symbolic weight of belonging, safety, acceptance, and the search for dignity in the face of fear we live with during these authoritarian times. With Hispanic and minority communities at the forefront of this daring and important book, we—as readers, citizens, activists—are led to question whether it’s foolish to ‘think God has forgotten the ones who / suffer.’ But behind every raid, every corrupt scandal, every morsel of doubt that makes us question our faith, there are abuelas armed with an abundance of warmth, strangers extending their callused hands, and music that pours into our souls as though it had come straight from Eden. For every tragedy, The Bags We Carry reminds us there is a triumph soon awaiting, and whether we chose to believe in the goodness of humanity or not, under Recinos’s lyrical care and narrative arc, we are given a chance to experience ‘sweet and gracious love.’”