Meanwhile

By Cynthia Rodríguez

This is a book about being trapped in the Meanwhile. Walking through seemingly

perpetual journeys between borders, genders, nationalities and social status.

As a product of mixing races, yet not mixed race. Inhabiting a large body of

before with no clear sense of an after. Set to a time of one's own, decades

lost and found in the way, at the mercy of socio-political circumstances, legal

procedures and test results. Cyclically prone to fail and start again.

These poems are inspired by liminality and rites of passage we cannot come

back from. They look at the new millennium, where the rituals of adulthood,

of becoming, of making sense as a role model citizen and perceived pillar

of society, are based on capitalist milestones of maturity and self-realisation

which seem impossible to those stuck in the Meanwhile.

These respectability parameters are the ones accepted for those who are

locked within the narrative of 'the good migrant', 'the successful queer', 'the

child prodigy', 'the perfect body' and 'the beautiful mind'; as if the only way

to escape judgement and earn dignity as human beings within the margins

is to fit into the media and government-approved stories of acceptance and

assimilation at the right time, place and age.

Through these pages, we embrace the Meanwhile, and we embrace ourselves

to get ready for whatever comes next.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1911570943
• ISBN13: 9781911570943
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: Burning Eye Books
• Length: 76 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.1" x 7.8"