Keywords: Genealogy, Memory, Ancestry, Diaspora, Poetry, Family, Future.
BUT YOU ARRIVED
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Kadiri J. Vaquer Fernández
English
Translated from the Spanish by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Foreword by Ana Luengo
2026
Hardcover | 176 pages | 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Paperback | 174 pages | 5.5 x 8.5 inches
The book rests on the mandate to poetically confront a complex memory in an almost perpetual state of diaspora, leaving a legacy for a young girl, Lua, who emerges from a premonitory dream and the reality of a vibrant love. The carefully chosen words convey the story of a Puerto Rican family whose origins lie in still-present colonial violence, racism, and survival, in migration and return, but which also serves as a safety net for the future of this now-present child, for it is a story of love and loyalty against all odds.
— Ana Luengo
If it’s true that children inherit their parents’ phobias, perhaps it began the night you entered your father’s room despite warnings from your mother, who slept one room over. Your father was sick and wouldn’t stop coughing. You were worried, I imagine, that he would run out of air. Despite his illness, he was strong enough to overcome you, but after, it seems you were hard to believe.
— Kadiri J. Vaquer Fernández
Kadiri J. Vaquer Fernández (Juncos, 1987). Is a poet, translator and professor. She has published three collections of poetry, Andamiaje, Ritos de pasaje and Si no vuelve el verano. She translated the anthology Literary Works by 10 Dominican Women edited by Kianny Antigua and the poetry collection All that Was Future by Iliana Pichardo Urrutia. She completed an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU and a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University.