“This highway is also yours my daughter”

Rosa Chávez is a Maya K’iche’ and Kaqchikel poet, artist, and activist born in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. She has authored several poetry collections—including Casa solitaria (2005), Ri uk’u’x ri ab’aj / El corazón de la piedra (2010), and Recordar vuelve el tiempo sagrado / Kux loq’olaj ri q’ij rumal ri na’tajisanem (2022)—in addition to experimental works of theater, performance, and video. Her work has been widely anthologized in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. (updated 4/2024)

Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. As a translator, she focuses on Indigenous literatures of Latin America, especially from Mesoamerica. Her translations of Rosa Chávez (Maya K’iche’ and Kaqchikel), with whom she regularly collaborates, have appeared in Poetry, AGNI, World Literature Today, BOMB, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She lives in Seattle. (updated 4/2024)