“Joaquín and Natasha, your poems are like a satisfying summer rain replenishing a thirsty landscape. They are engrossing, thoughtful, deep with knowledge, and rich in poetic rhythms. As I read I felt in the presence of two old souls penning the red and black ink, awakening to life the wisdom of our ancestors. I rejoiced, knowing that you two represent a new generation of multicultural poets, willing to reveal your intimate lives, your joys and tragedies, and also sharing a profound empathy with the lives of los de abajo, those who have suffered the iniquities of history. I felt freedom and justice ringing in your poems, and I trust many readers will feel the same sense of liberation.” (on the book of fire and rain by Natasha Carrizosa and Joaquin Zihuatanejo)
Rudolfo Anaya, Author of Bless Me, Ultima and Alburquerque (Oct 1, 2008)
“The poetry is lush and green and rich. One turns from inside the heart’s thorny and parched landscape and encounters the poetic word to redeem the salt in the wound, the long-for kiss, to cool the burning– these poems do just this.”
(on the book of fire and rain by Natasha Carrizosa and Joaquin Zihuatanejo)
Jimmy Santiago Baca, Author of Immigrants in Our Own Land and A Place to Stand (Oct 1, 2008)
“Natasha & Joaquin write passionate, potent poems―their voices unafraid of questioning and reckoning―here’s a cheer for their full hearts, vivid hopes & soulful journeys—
(on the book of fire and rain by Natasha Carrizosa and Joaquin Zihuatanejo)
Naomi Shihab Nye, Author of Yellow Gove and Different Ways to Pray (Nov 1, 2008)
“Joaquín Zihuatanejo’s inspirational pieces about high school teaching still echo in my mind.”
Byron Kocen, MD, Chairman, Austin International Poetry Festival 2004-2005 (Apr 20, 2005)
“As someone whose been on both sides of the curtain, a performer and a person who books talent for our university, I can honestly say as long as I’ve been around, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen them come and go, I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. In spoken word, performance poetry, and slam, there is Joaquin Zihuatanejo, and then there is everyone else. He is simply the best poet writing/performing today, there is no one that does it as well as he does, and I cannot recall of anyone back in the day who did it as well as he does today. If you’re lucky enough to see him perform, then you have just witnessed the best in the business. It’s no wonder he’s the Individual World Poetry Slam Champion of North America and the European World Cup of Poetry Slam Champion…hell, if they ever hold an intergalactic poetry slam championship on some remote moon of Saturn, we’re sending him.”
Jonathan “GNO” White, 2001 National Poetry Slam Champion/Faculty Advisor University of Texas at Dallas (Sep 15, 2009)
“Joaquín, by day an award-winning schoolteacher, has lit the performance poetry scene on fire in the past 12 months, winning awards and slam honors from coast to coast; he recently opened a reading for Maya Angelou and shared a stage with young rhythm & blues princess Alicia Keys, taping segments for the upcoming season of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for HBO in New York City.”
Mark Williams, The Bulletin (Sep 1, 2005)
