With absolute creative freedom, Árbol de plaza talado en su novena edad sides with the power of remembering and collective and individual memory to critically and without nostalgia examine a process of modernization marked by multiple instances of happiness and achievement, ineffable violence, and excruciating displacements. A gesture to corner the memory and force it to speak and to re-emerge fully is organized around the powerful allegory of a tree-man threatened with destruction due to its old age, and is one in which nature (origin, scenario) and humanity (impact of history and human culture) are combined. The impressive illustrative art of master Antonio Martorell complements and perfectly captures the poetics of a book where language is not the only material for textual creation. By submerging in the reverberating zones of a (re)created memory, language acquires a certain incantation and rhythm that we associate with chant, prayer, and human breath.

—Israel Ruiz Cumba, poet and literary critic, St. Mary’s College of Maryland