It’s Alive!

After two years… she’s finally here.

I’ve been waiting to share this piece of my heart with you all. My first ever published book is now live on Amazon and Kindle.

The Diary of an Emo Latina is a collection of poems written in literary styles I discovered and honed here on Vocal. You all introduced me to the craft of poetry, and over the past 4–5 years, I’ve learned how to weave words into patterns, how to create literary art, and how to pour my soul onto the page. I’m so honored to have started this journey on this platform.

With that said, I want to introduce the prodigy of my time spent here—my Frankenstein’s monster, if you will.

When people ask why The Diary of an Emo Latina, well… “The Diary of a Mad Black Woman” was already taken. But seriously, I’ve always loved stories that start with “The Diary of…” because they feel personal, testimonial, and intimate. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is another.

To hold up to the trend, I knew the first part needed to be an emotion, and the second part an identity of some sort. I considered calling it, The Diary of a Tired Latina, but “Emo” felt more comical, catchier, and more me. There’s nothing serious about me at all.

After reading it, you’ll see she’s just an emo kid at heart.

The DOAEL is my biography in poetry. The cover is a self-portrait, adorned with a rose crown, holding a bouquet of flowers, wearing a white wedding dress. It’s symbolic in many ways. The main reason, I’m thirty-seven and single. I’m on a journey with myself, while others have far surpassed me in the world’s checklist of expectations—marriage, kids, the white picket fence. But what about God’s expectations for me?

In Scripture, marriage is a picture of His love for us. A bride represents purity, not perfection, because the bridegroom prepares her. Christ purifies and restores us.

“Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?” — Matthew 9:15

I love, love —LOVE this verse because it’s speaking to the emo kid. The mournful heart. He’s saying, you have enough. You aren’t expected to follow cultures yellow brick roads, just His.

Understanding the bridegroom in Scripture can loosen the grip of worldly expectations. According to God, what I have right now is enough—and if this is your season, it’s enough for you, too.

The book is divided into three sections. The first, Abandonment, explores how we are broken before we can be fixed. The second, Love, contains poems about the spiritual and physical love I long for and desire. The third and final section, Restoration, is the heart of the book—the thickest portion, where I weave together lessons from sermons, personal reflections, and the ways God has restored my past.

My dear friend Sara spoke at a women’s conference in Florida about how perception is our reality, and I’ve welded that concept throughout many of my poems. I’ve also drawn from notes I’ve taken from sermons I sit under day in and day out—reminders of how the Lord has restored my health, my past, and my struggles with abandonment.

I could tell my story from start to finish, I could give you details of how it all went down, but when you read it through poetry, you get all the of the story without needing to know the details because you’ll think to yourself, “man, she really gets it” without knowing a single thing, because here’s the thing, we all have had a sucky story one point or another. That’s why I love poetry. It tells the story without telling it.

In this book you get the story, as it’s taking place, from my twenties to thirties.

There’s poems about my childhood, my mother and grandmother, poems about being abandoned by almost everyone I thought I trusted. Poems about my journey through severe sickness, a false cancer diagnosis, and what I’ve learned from it all.

When you read a poem about abandonment, it may resonate with that emptiness of trust, after someone has looked you in the eyes and ‘lied you in-love.’ And now, mistrust and doubt is all you see as you move forward trying to navigate life. But the truth is, good people lie, bad people lie, but I know One who never lies, who reminds me to look in the mirror and see my true reflection, Christ, my Lord and Savior.

Enjoy the book! And just before you think this is a religious book—it’s not. It’s raw. These pages have some pretty tough edges. Religion doesn’t exist in my world.

I hope you give it a read, leave a comment about what resonated with you, and if you’re feeling generous, leave my first review—I want your honest feedback!

Love you, Vocal fam,

Sincerely yours, an Emo Latina