How to Lie to a Customs Agent

By Carlos Fidel Espinoza

How to Lie to a Customs Agent is a collection of poetry that explores the experiences, triumphs, and pains of life on the border by contemplating what it means to live a life vivisected by two worlds of tradition, language, and customs. The poems deal with the loss of personal relationships through the prism of desert life. At the same time, the looming question of nationality, belonging, and race create a landscape that can be as harsh, dangerous, and beautiful as desert life itself.

Carlos Fidel Espinoza, is a writer, musician, and activist from the El Paso/ Juarez Frontera. His work has appeared on Vice, NPR, Words on A Wire, and State of the Arts. His writing can be read in Acentos Review, Spry Literary Journal, BorderSenses, Pilgrimage, and Shantih Literary Journal among others. He contributed to the editing of Andres Montoya's posthumous collection of poetry, A Jury of Trees and was a featured reader at "Together We Will Be a Song, a Celebration of Andres Montoya's Life and Work."

As an advocate for literature, Carlos Fidel Espinoza works as the editor-in-chief of Barrio Panther Literatura Magazine and was the Artistic Director for Border- Sense. He worked as the editor for ForWord a literary journal for young writers, and as the editor for Border Senses Literary Journal's fifteen year anniversary publication.

Carlos holds a Bilingual Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso. He teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Texas at El Paso, and El Paso Community College. c/s www.barriopanther.com

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0915745518
• ISBN13: 9780915745517
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Floricanto Press
• Length: 84 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"