This anthology gathers the strong voices of accomplished poets reaching into and beyond nostalgia to remember, to honor, and to document through figurative imagery their experiences of Mexico and the vibrant border areas before the ravages of narco-violence.

Locals Listen to the Mariachi Band at El Jardin in San Miguel

You see their silhouettes along the stone wall

or arm in arm below the glow of garden lights

huddled like foothills, earth you could plant maize in.

Cowboy hats and serapes, the smell of beer and

cinnamon churros. You think of family and language

how the music rolls through your hips

to the sweat behind your knees. How it rushes

through you, to a place you still don’t know.

—Lois P. Jones