Yesika Salgado (born 1984) is an American poet. She is the author of poetry collections ''Corazón'', ''Tesoro'', and ''Hermosa''. She is also a co-founder of the poetry collective Chingona Fire.

Early life

Salgado's parents immigrated from

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and she grew up in Los Angeles. Her father encouraged her reading habits, but wanted her to become a teacher. Salgado dropped out of John Marshall High School when she was 18 years old, and worked a series of retail jobs while writing her poetry.

Career

In 2005, Salgado started posting her work online at HipHopPoetry.com, where she had created a false identity under the name Yesika Starr. After she was banned three years later for plagiarizing a

Ricardo Arjona Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales (born 19 January 1964), known as Ricardo Arjona (), is a Guatemalan singer and songwriter. He is one of the most successful and best-selling Latin American artists of all time, with more than 20 million records sold ...

song, the site's founder encouraged her to read at the open mic night at

Da Poetry Lounge Da Poetry Lounge is the largest weekly open mic performance space for poetry in the U.S. It is located in Los Angeles at the Greenway Court Theatre. History Da Poetry Lounge was founded in 1998 as "Dante's Poetry Lounge" by poets Dante Basco, ...

, where she began performing under her own name. In 2014, Salgado performed at the

National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every y ...

for the DPL. She later qualified for the 2016 Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team. During this time Salgado frequently shared her work on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, building a large social media following. Salgado's first book, ''Corazón'', was published in 2017. Salgado frequently mentions fruit throughout the book, specifically mangoes, and the cover of the book reflects this theme. ''Corazón'' was listed on Amazon's best seller list. Her second book, ''Tesoro'', was published in 2018. Its poems draw on Salgado's family history to examine women, Los Angeles, and identity. Her most recent book, ''Hermosa'', was published in September 2019 and deals with love, loss, and gentrification. Salgado and Angela Aguirre founded the feminist poetry collective Chingona Fire. The organization hosts frequent open mic/performance nights for women-identified poets of color to share their work.

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Hermosa'', Not A Cult Press, 2019 * ''Tesoro'', Not A Cult Press, 2018 * ''Corazón'', Not A Cult Press, 2017 * ''Sentimental Boss Bitch'', self-published, 2017 * ''WOES'', self-published, 2016 * ''The Luna Poems'', self-published, 2013

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salgado, Yesika Living people 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American poets American writers of Salvadoran descent 1984 births American women poets