Animals

Diaz uses animals for symbolic purposes throughout the collection, often in ways that align with her identity as a Mojave woman. This occurs most overtly in “Snake-Light,” a long poem in which the rattlesnake serves as a symbol of the Mojave generally and the poet herself specifically. She compares the American tradition of killing rattlesnakes for sport at rodeos to the Mojave attitude of reverence toward the animals as a symbolic indictment of white American values—the same values that inspired the centuries-long genocide against Native Americans upon which the country was founded. At the end of the poem, she recalls her grandmother telling her she should not wear a necklace her uncle had made her out of a snake's rattler, declaring, “Would you wear my foot around your neck? ...We don't eat snakes. They are our sisters” (87). This familial affiliation speaks to a respect for...