Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Angelica Aquino

Alberto O. Cappas, a Puerto Rican poet, writer and thinker, has captured and is able to transmit the soul of being BORICUA with his latest work, Dona Julia And Other Selected Poems (112 Pages), published by AuthorHouse.

As the global village prepares herself to embrace the last trimester of 2002, a year after that somber morning of September 11, 2002, I read Alberto's latest collection of poems amidst the noisy and tranquility of Central Park's 59th Street and Fifth Avenue Pond. Amidst the escape of a jungle made of concrete, smog and stress, I read and savored his poems slowly...Alberto's latest collection of poems are electrifying and a wake-up call to all New Yorkers -- not just BORICUAS.

I heard, one after the other, the voices of BORICUAS in the mainland calling things, events, places and people what they are-with the charm and openness of el Jibaro (countryman) of Puerto Rican mountains. Objects and players are what they are---without masks and presumptions. His poetry is amazingly vivid and extremely descriptive. In "Her Borinquen" he shares the ingenuity and beauty of being a Boricua in the United States:
Dona Rivera bought the moon and the best part is that it is tax-free...

The essence of the Puerto Rican experience against the callousness and coldness of the mainland experience, only in America someone will sell the moon. Back in Puerto Rico the moon belongs to everyone: the jibaros, the coqui, and of course all Puerto Ricans. Her Borinquen captures the Puerto Rican experience versus the cold Corporate America reality. Corporate tendencies reflected in the way we live, where greed and dishonesty rule.

Poem after poem characters become real people, fiction is a concern of Hollywood. Alberto really captures and shares the urban BORICUA experience in his Images...

Morning unfolds
Urban concrete jungle
Far from tropical images for tropical people
Weekend----leisured stretch
Engraved scars
Visible to the gringo eye
Gilbert exploring with coke
His introduction to
"Being cool"
Overdosed into wasteland
"What a story!"

Every poem in his Dona Julia And Other Selected Poems represents the BORICUA experience in the mainland, where despite the colonial experience and presence of Uncle Sam, many Puerto Ricans work hard to cherish, treasure and preserve the pride, and joy of being as BORICUA as El Coqui. Cappas and his Ganas capture the warrior spirit in every word.

Alberto's work reflect the angst of being Boricua in a non-Puerto Rican Universe, where humans are not seen nor treated as equals. Thus, being Superheroes is out of the question. His To the Batman Man evokes the pain of being regarded as a commonwealth citizen:

It's time you open your eyes
To the world and see for yourself
I know that you can hear
But refuse to listen
I know that you can feel
But refuse to touch...

He does the same for the female struggle and the Puerto Rican women experience in Lady in Red:
Your smile
Haunted with painful thoughts
Darkness can not conceal your light.

Read them, live them, enjoy them and most importantly share them. To me, particularly Dona Julia evokes a reflective soul with a poignant mind. A humanist calls for generations to follow in the voice of Alberto O. Cappas. His voice, vision and passion transcends race, gender, and affiliation barriers. There is nothing, which escapes him or alludes him. Cappas and his Dona Julia And Other Selected Poems reflects the whole world of being BORICUA, an urban warrior, a hummingbird of hope, dreams and love.

Dona Julia And Other Selected Poems is a must have and a gem to share.