A01=Gerard Robledo
Academic Minority
ACOA
Addiction
AL-ANON
alcoholism
alcoholism and addiction in poetry
Americanization
anthropoetics
anxiety
Author_Gerard Robledo
BIPOC
biracial daughter
body image
Category=DC
Category=DNB
Category=FXD
Category=FXL
Category=JBFK1
Category=VFJM
Catholicism
chapbooks by emerging Latinx poets
child of an alcoholic
Child of Mexican immigrant
choral ode
colorism
concrete imagery
contemporary Chicano poetry
cultural expectations
cultural identity
Cultural minority
cultural norms
Debut ChapbookCollection
Debut in my 40s
depression
docu-poetics
Domestic violence
ekphrastic
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
eq_society-politics
family dysfunction in poetry
fatherhood and self-worth in poetry
First Generation
First Generation College StudentGraduate
Full-timeCustodial Latino single father to daughter
Gen-X
gender expectations
gender norms Lyrical poetry
Generation X
Grandson of migrant workers
Hispanic
identity politics
imagism
Latino poets on masculinity
Latinoax
Machismo
Mexican
Mexican American
Mexican American poets to read
narrative poetry
parental love
parenting
performative culture
poetry about generational trauma
poetry about masculinity and identity
poetry about single fatherhood
poetry of witness
poets writing about abuse and recovery
racism
religion
Single father
single father to a daughter
single mothers
single parents
Son of a LatinaMexican American Single mother
substance abuse
TexanTejano
traumatic upbringing
white passing
Product details
- ISBN 9781680034226
- Weight: 85g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Texas Review Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In this visceral debut poetry chapbook, My Mother, the Butcher, Mexican American poet, Gerard Robledo, sets his speaker to confront the lasting scars of a traumatic childhood marked by alcoholism, neglect, and emotional cruelty. Undaunted, he dredges the devastating history of familial pain and a mother’s callousness which haunts his daily life as a single father raising a daughter. In the process, he tries to reconcile his cultural and masculine identity with his own truth, as his struggles with alcoholism, religion, and self-worth threaten to consume him. This sincere poetry collection dissects the complexity of generational trauma—fractured parts of the self; the struggle to heal, break free, and find one’s identity. It also presents a necessary perspective on the non-traditional experiences of a single Latino father, the struggles faced, and the beauty of one’s own humanity—even in the face of unrelenting pain.
Gerard Robledo is a Mexican American poet from San Antonio and an Immigrant son. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and teaches at Palo Alto College. His Spanish language poetry translations, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in Voices de la Luna, The Texas Observer, Oyster River Pages, Solstice Magazine, Poetrybay, Vox Populi, and others. He is a Macondo Writers’ Workshop Fellow, and a recipient of the 2020 Eduardo Corral Emerging Latinx Writers Mentorship.
