Ugly Duckling Presse, paperback
Publication Date: March 1, 2022
Publisher Marketing: I Have Seen the Bluest Blue uses loose translations and manipulated language to tell the story of a step-mother's deportation and a father's heaviness without her. Starting with a letter written to support her father's case for his wife's return, Cruz's "dream" edits or "forgiveness" edits question the use of personal grief in a court of law. The second half of the book turns to the missing stepmother, and the testimony she never got to give in court. With each page drawing on a new device to contort the language of each to new ends, I Have Seen the Bluest Blue repeats the story into and out of existence, turning words in and on and against themselves to see how borders and barriers interweave with and manipulate the personal itself.
