For Julia de Burgos
In Carolina
before the housing developments
when the river would drown people
in a breeze
and amanú was no extraordinary herb.
Thomas Rothe is a translator and scholar of Caribbean and Latin American literatures. His research focuses on the history of translation, print and popular culture, and critical discourses. As a translator, he has brought into English the poetry of Jaime Huenún, Rodrigo Lira, Emma Villazón, and Julieta Marchant, among others. He has also co-translated into Spanish Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously and Claire of the Sea Light. He is currently an Associate Professor of Literature at the Universidad de Playa Ancha, in Valparaíso, Chile, and a Fondecyt postdoctoral fellow.