lo terciario / the tertiary

Longlist, National Book Awards 2018 for Poetry

lo terciario / the tertiary by Raquel Salas Rivera book cover
ISBN 9781937421274
Timeless, Infinite Light
Author photo for Raquel Salas Rivera. (Photo credit: Linette Kielinski)
Raquel Salas Rivera

Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and editor. His honors include being named Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the New Voices Award from the Festival de la Palabra, the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, the inaugural Ambroggio Prize, the Laureate Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to translate the poetry of his grandfather, Sotero Rivera Avilés. More about this author >

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Written in response to the PROMESA bill (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act) bill, lo terciario / the tertiary offers a decolonial queer critique and reconsideration of Marx. The book’s titles come from Pedro Scaron’s El Capital, the 1976 translation of Karl Marx’s classic. Published by Siglo Veintiuno Editores, this translation was commonly used by the Puerto Rican left as part of political formation programs. lo terciario / the tertiary places this text in relation to the Puerto Rican debt crisis, forcing readers to reconsider old questions when facing colonialism’s newest horrors.

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