The 2013 Artkoi Books selection, Chopper! Chopper! reflects the lives and experiences of Mexican Americans, immigrants, Chicanas/os, and joteria communities in the barrios of East L.A., El Paso, and borders beyond.

Chopper! Chopper! reflects the lives of Mexican Americans, immigrants, Chicanas/os, and la joter\u00eda—malfloras, jotos, and beautiful rainbow communities. As vividly as Mexican Technicolor, these poems capture life in the barrio: vendors hauling carts with elote, raspados, botes y m\u00e1s. Vatos fighting to exist. Mujeres claiming space. Summer evenings, children playing in the calles of East L.A., El Paso, and bordered tierras everywhere. Reyes’s work exudes the pride, strength, turmoil and struggle of neighborhoods brimming with tradition and invention, estilo a la brava. These homegrown verses reveal the barrio in all its intricate layers. Revering difference, they fight to make room for something new: Marimacha Poetry. \u00a1Y Qu\u00e9!