-Juana Iris Goergen

Juana Iris Goergen’s poem “Reconquista/Reconquest” is an important part of the tradition in Latinx studies that takes Whitman to task for turning a blind eye to the United States’ history of imperialism. Similar to Mauricio González de la Garza’s 1971 book Walt Whitman: Racista, imperialista, antimexicano, Goergen addresses the Whitman who sets himself up as the poet of America without considering the indigenous and Hispanophone peoples with equal claim to be called Americans.