"She is chanteusse,
diva, storyteller, rebelde, rabblerouser, and all poeta. The pages
of Razor Edges are filled with the voices of the women next door,
las comadres who work, live and struggle in the barrio. Leticia
engages her reader throughout; she's questioning and challenging,
and knows exactly when to weave in her song. To read Leticia's
chapbook is to experience tongue twisting, bilingual, meaningful
mouthfuls of reality. It's like sitting in a café, smelling
the burnt and provocative aroma, and sipping the foam of a rich
warm beverage."
- Elba Rosario Sánchez, When Skin Peels
"Leticia Hernández gives voice to a generation
that is culturally kaleidoscopic, urban-edgey, and infused with
the spoken resistance-sensibility of the hip hop generation. But
she is mindful of history, too: in these poems the past sings
harmony with the present. There is something of Roque Dalton,
the late great revo Salvadoran bard, in these lines (of course!),
with a dash of the beats and then the Beat of the Postmodern Bass
that keeps the proceedings anchored rhythmically & thematically.
It is a rousing performance -- as raucous on the page as Leticia
is on stage."
- Rubén Martínez, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family
on the Migrant Trail
Leticia Hernández-Linares, was conceived in El Salvador, born in Hollywood, and lives in San Francisco. Her name is really long in the written form because her mother wants credit too. During the last ten years, Leticia has worked as an educator and youth advocate. She has taught writing and art classes to young people from the ages of 5 to 21. Her work appears in Frontiers, Puerto Del Sol , Raza Spoken Here 2, Izote Vos, and Cipactli, and she has performed her music and teatro infused poetry throughout California and in El Salvador. Currently a fugitive from a Ph.D. program, she was last spotted in the skies over San Francisco, twirling her skirt of stars, and spitting out shards of tecpatl from the razor edges of her tongue.