Luz María Umpierre - Exchange With Sandra María Esteves

Exchange With Sandra María Esteves

Umpierre is particularly well known for the poetic conversation she has engaged in with the Nuyorican poet Sandra María Esteves, which consisted of two poems by each woman. In 1985 Umpierre published a poem titled "In Response" which offered a pointed critique of the vision of Puerto Rican womanhood advanced in Esteves's poem "A la mujer borrinqueña" (in Yerba Buena, 1980). Esteves, in her poem, focused on a figure called Maria Christina, who is presented as a proud mother and wife that participates in her community's struggle against prejudice and oppression. Umpierre offers a Lesbian Feminist view to Esteves (and her character of Maria Christina) for her complacency with traditional social views of womanhood, and presents a poetic speaker that argues that her name is "not Maria Cristina" (spelling Cristina in Spanish, without an h) and who does not depend on men. Esteves would then go on to respond to Umpierre in her poem "So Your Name Isn't Maria Cristina," part of Bluestown Mockingbird Mambo (1990) stating that both women have been victims of the patriarchy. Umpierre subsequently commented on that poem in her own "Musée D'Orsay," published in For Christine (1995), and also wrote an essay stating that she holds a sisterly esteem towards Esteves and considers her an important fellow poet. These four poems have been published together in the fifth edition of the Heath Anthology of American Literature with an introduction by the Puerto Rican scholar Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes; the same critic also recorded a radio program for the Modern Language Association on this topic. Umpierre has criticized the reading of these poems offered by the scholar William Luis, stating her strong disagreement with his interpretation and went as far as to sue him for defamation of character.