For the Hard Ones/Para las duras
Para las duras: Una fenomonologia lesbiana / For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology, originally published in 2002, is a collection of poetry existing from and beyond the boundaries of language, sexuality, and genre. Each memory, meditation, analysis, and erotic snapshot— featured side-by-side in both English and Spanish— is overlaid with the sexual character, experimental prose, and levity signature to the work of de la tierra. As a bilingual book, For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology / Para las duras: Una fenomonologia lesbiana centers, explores, and reimagines queer Latina sexuality, opening up space for multiple interpretations and transformations.
This new edition, published as the sixth Sapphic Classic from Sinister Wisdom, features an introduction by scholars Olga Garcí a Echeverrí a and Maylei Blackwell, a foreword by Myriam Gurba, an essay on de la tierra’ s periodicals by Sara Gregory, and a tribute to de la tierra by her mother, proving a vibrant context for contemporary engagements with de la tierra’ s powerful and important work.
Born in Villavicencio, Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida, tatiana de la tierra was a bicultural writer whose work focused on identity, sexuality, and South American memory and reality. She completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Master of Library Science from University at Buffalo. tatiana was a founder, editor, and contributor to the Latina lesbian publications esto no tiene nombre, conmoció n and la telarañ a. She is the author of For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology / Para las duras: Una fenomenologí a lesbiana and Xí a y las mil sirenas, a children’ s book. Her chapbook publications included Porcupine Love and Other tales from My Papaya; Pí ntame Una Mujer Peligrosa; tierra 2010: poems, songs & a little blood; and Pajarito, regá leme una canció n. She passed away in Long Beach, California in July, 2012.
