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About Roxana Preciado
Roxana Preciado is an indie author and artist recognized for her work as a poet and activist. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, she migrated to the US at 4-years-old and has been writing poetry since the age of twelve. She is the author of four poetry collections, having just released Trauma for Sale, a compilation of Preciado's experiences as a person of color managing migration, social class, higher education, and mental health issues. Her third book, Hood Educated is an exploration of Preciado's evolution and healing, as she connects the disparate parts of her past self into a unified whole.
Not a Writer, Preciado's second book, explores topics such as depression, suicide, sexuality, and immigration. In her first book, Not a Fairytale, Preciado recounts her life through poetry. Taken from childhood journals, Not a Fairytale recounts the harsh realities of overcoming family tragedy, homelessness, her undocumented status, and learning what life is like without an anchor to parent or country.
Preciado uses poetry and her story to support community engagement and activism around DACA and, as a survivor, to raise awareness about violence against women. She often speaks to Latinx and LGBTQ+ youth to help them find their voice and tell their stories. Preciado has completed her MS degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, and continues her advocacy work for her various communities. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California with her wife and son.
Reviewed by Edith Wairimu for Readers' Favorite
Hood Educated is Roxana Preciado’s honest and passionate poetry collection that reveals her struggles, pain, courage and healing process. It is a collection about loneliness, brokenness, hopelessness yet defying all odds to become much more than you thought was possible. The collection is powerful and emotive. It recounts the poet’s journey as an immigrant and survivor of sexual and emotional abuse. In The Irony of an Immigrant, Preciado opens up about being homeless as she spared no effort to further her education and attain her degree, despite having no place to live and no food to eat. In Mama, Mama, Preciado reveals her struggle to feel loved by her mother as a child. The poem explores their estranged relationship and the pain that arose as she sought her mother’s validation.
I was drawn to the collection because of Roxana Preciado’s candidness about all the painful struggles she has gone through from childhood to her teenage and adult years. Her openness about her abuse experiences will resonate with many readers who have been through similar circumstances and these will also serve as an inspiration of bravery. Roxana Preciado’s achievements show that it is possible to move forward from heart-breaking events and memories. The language used in the collection is direct, such as in the poem Negative Self-Talk (The Artist) where the poet states, “They hate me, Negative thoughts in my head.” This amplifies the impact of the words and effectively drives the messages in the collection. Hood Educated by Roxana Preciado is impactful and inspiring in many ways.
