Variations in Blue by Adela Najarro
Variations in Blue
by Adela Najarro
Red Hen Press, 2025
reviewed by Patricia Sweeney
During COVID, sheltered in rainy, grey Washington State with ice on the lake, I said, “Yes,” to a sunny friend in California. “I’ll take Dr. Adela Najarro’s poetry class through Cabrillo College on Zoom with you.”
Light grew . . .
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Then, Escape Into Life asked, “Will you review Variations in Blue?”
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Dr. Adela Najarro’s fifth book of poetry, Variations in Blue, is bright blue, black and blue, with dark reaching light.
This bicultural-bilingual author “stands on the edge of volcanoes” to embrace her Nicaragua-California heritage. She peels back layers of experience to reveal herself in both Spanish and English. Variations in Blue, primarily in English, is a journey rhythmically spiced with Spanish and context clues. However, I found it worthwhile to translate some Spanish with a dictionary. For example in the poem “En La Voz de mi Padre,” the word mujeriego means “womanizer.”
I also researched references to paintings. Through Dr. Adela’s poem, “La Virgen de las Patadas [Kicks],” and her exploration of Ester Hernandez’ painting, La Virgen de Guadalupe defendiendo los derechos de los Xicanos, I moved beyond my mentally stuck, traditional impressions of La Virgen de Guadalupe into a new world of women, especially women of color, owning their power.
She kicks the moon in black and white,
A karate side snap paired with a power punch . . .
became real for me by viewing the black-belted woman in the white karate suit kicking to defend her life; avoid erasure.
In all the couplets, all the international women with “legs strong…Hair brown and straight…”
La Virgin de las Patadas,
a powerhouse for women caught underneath
bridges, for men, resting in blue palo verde shade,
for boys in mismatched tennis shoes
ALL humans seeking freedom are addressed:
With her blessing, todo estará bien, [all will be well]
You’ve reached the other side.
In the poem “What Changed”,
Sadness and loss
Changed to dancing
A cha-cha two step
Under a moon and a star.
Many of Dr. Adela’s poems reflect her reality, humility, struggle, and courage to reach the other side. Many of her students and fans comment on the gifts of inspiration she shares to redesign lives; “Ignoring that silly bird,” repeating the same familiar lines inside self-created pantoums. (“El Perico Verde”). We, too, can take charge of our own stanzas.
“The Parking Lot,” full of numbness, encourages everyone to leave the parking lot of acceptance of domestic violence – to truly “hear the moon dripping sweet, sweet, sweetness” onto the path of freedom, to be who we are meant to be.
Variations in Blue paints Dr. Adela’s route from the Volcanic Heat of her green-eyed chele childhood with iguanas, mangoes, prawns in butter sauce, and friends who carried rifles through domestic violence and the recognition in her poem “Looking Under Tombstones on Día de Los Muertos” that her
ancestors are women without men.
The men drank themselves into shivering skeletons.
And eventually, the path she describes here leads her to become a self-assured, empathetic adult who radiates forgiveness and hope.
May you, too, enjoy Dr. Adela’s word art today for a kinder tomorrow.
Patricia Sweeney has created, illustrated, and co-authored a “transitional” cookbook that encourages carnivores to explore vegetarian versions of meat-centered cuisine. This work led to feature articles about vegetarians, restaurant reviews, and nutritional curriculum for public and private schools. This artist in process is currently writing/illustrating a children’s poetry book in English and Spanish, and a novel with interactive Ayurveda lessons.
Get Variations in Blue at IndiePubs.org
Podcast 28 interview with Adela Najarro on Variations in Blue
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