In this intimate and powerful debut, Dra. Hortencia Jiménez weaves poetry, memory, and ancestral wisdom into a collection that speaks to the many versions of ourselves we carry across time.

A queer Mexican immigrant of Wixárika ancestry, professor, author, podcaster, and mother, Jiménez writes from the intersections of migration, queerness, academia, motherhood, and healing. Born in the Sierra Madre of Nayarit, Mexico and raised in the United States, her poems move between English, Spanish, and Spanglish, between heartbreak and joy, between survival and liberation. They trace a journey from abandonment, shame, and silence toward reclamation, embodiment, and belonging.

These poems are for anyone who has been told they were too much, too loud, too emotional, or too different. For those who learned to shrink in order to survive. For those dismantling inherited narratives and reclaiming the parts of themselves that were denied, dismissed, or labeled wrong.

This book is both an offering and an invitation, to soften, to remember, and to return home to yourself. To choose yourself. To love yourself fiercely and unapologetically.

Fifty percent of this book’s proceeds fund the Mariposa Rising Scholarship,  a new endowed scholarship supporting undocumented students transferring from Hartnell College to a university. This initiative is in collaboration with the Hartnell College Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting Hartnell College students and programs. Transforming pain into poetry and returning it to the community is part of how healing becomes collective.

This collection is for anyone on a healing journey, anyone longing to feel seen, held, and understood, and for anyone ready to come home to their most liberated self.