Listen to a clip here:

"Yesterday I finally received my copy of one of the most spellbinding books ever written. This is no mere memoir, but one of total life, of one's heart and soul, an odyssey that will leave you thinking about what it is like to be in one's shoes. I only have one word to say regarding its power: Pulitzer." 
-Maestro Kevin Scott; Conductor, Composer; Scholar

Video & photo courtesy of La Reina del Barrio, Inc.
L: Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director, of Pregones/PRTT
Rhina Valentin, NYC's Favorite TV Host, OPEN on BronxNet

Raves & Reviews:
​

“Mi’ja belongs on your bookshelf between I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The House on Mango Street. Pure passion, pure life, pure New York City. We thrill watching the narrator survive, thrive and tell her tale. Brilliant!”
—Lisa Aronson-Fontes, PhD; psychologist, professor, Fulbright scholar, global speaker and author of​ Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate Relationship and Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families.

​​"From deep in the South Bronx comes a voice that must be heard. It is a voice that cannot be muffled. It is the voice of a little Latina girl - Mi’ja - who grew up to become a poet, playwright and author. Those who already know the works Magdalena Gómez will be surprised because this piece of non-fiction, this recollection of a life on the edge, is meticulous and rich with detail and color like she’s never written before. Gómez pours it all out, letting readers understand the distended underbelly of her life growing up with a sadistic mother (Mami) and a jovial father (Papi) and a shortage of love. It took every breath for her to endure as a first generation child in an economically oppressed area. Gómez carves out a road map for survival that should be followed word-for-word. For if she could overcome all of the impediments and roadblocks on her way to becoming a world-class playwright and Poet Laureate, so can others, mostly by finding the humor where you would least expect it.

Gómez’s first 19 years are riddled with contradictions, but she is up to the task. Time is on her side and she bides it like a champ, grabbing independence so direly needed to assert her true self and ultimately free her from her captors, the two people who would ultimately define her whether she liked it or not. A masterpiece of memoir writing, this book belongs on shelves far and wide…"

-Steve Bloom, co-author Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness and author of Video Invaders

 “Mesmerizing and hypnotic—I want the sequel. Can’t wait for the film.”  
​--Naomi Jacobson, Helen Hayes award-winning actor; Fontanne Fellow

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"Gómez’s Mi’ja captures the transnational - intergenerational wisdom, violence, trauma, and generosity of lives both documented and undocumented that surrounded her youth through her adolescence. Transported not only in time and space, but to the the very nature of reality and its constantly evolving lessons and broken logic, Gómez’s masterpiece heals as it startles, a chronology of nuestra America from the vantage point of the South Bronx in the last quarter of the 20th century. Doctors who don’t heal, scars that speak of nations, colors that run and colorism that runs: this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the human condition in our still colonized world."
-Dr. Benjamin Barson, Fulbright-García Robles Grant; ASCAP

“Funny, painful, wickedly smart, and the definition of 'real'.” 
-Dr. Bob Spivey, Founder of SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School), a Revolutionary Activist Art Group

"Meno mal que la Mi'ja esa e' media espiritista y no se olvida de nosotros los muertos."
​-Doña K. Karajo, Curandera y Activista contra la muerte.

​“Don’t miss the numerous creative and syncopated renderings and re-mixings of the Boricua Spanglish of the time, a treasure trove of New York Puerto Rican history reanimated by the ear and flow only a poet and performer like Gómez could bring...Gómez has long been a bridge between the foundational Nuyorican poets of the 1960s and 1970s and younger generations of poets and performers. Mi’ja is another kind of bridge: her “memoir noir” combines poems and dream records with vivid yet often raw and painful prose remembrances of growing up in the Bronx during a time of transition with parents steeped in old ways. She watches the borough transform and fray without losing its sense of struggle or its defiant humor, just as Gómez never has.”
—Urayoán Noel Associate Professor of English, Spanish, & Portuguese / Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Spanish & Portuguese at NYU; Latinx Project Faculty Board Member

"I love the book! Wow. So moving. I have so much respect for that narrator. So wise and powerful that child, and the woman she has become. Thank you for writing this book. This necessary book."
-Mary Buchinger Bodwell, Professor of English and Communication Studies; New England Poetry Club board member. Author, Klaudz

"Reading it now and loving it! The prose is so evocative and sensual."
-D.Dina Friedman, Author/Activist, Escaping into the Night; Wolf in the Suitcase

“Gómez unflinchingly shares how adult physical and verbal violence warps a child’s ability to love and causes psychological wounds with no statute of limitations. Her lyric grace renders so many painful moments into riveting vignettes and unforgettable imagery. Gómez’s skillful crafting of this memoir immediately earns its rightful place alongside contemporary memoirs such as Grace Talusan’s The Body Papers, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, and Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House.“
—María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado, MFA, MA; multilingual Boricua poet Pushcart Prize nominee

​​"From deep in the South Bronx comes a voice that must be heard. It is a voice that cannot be muffled. It is the voice of a little Latina girl - Mi’ja - who grew up to become a poet, playwright and author. Those who already know the works Magdalena Gómez will be surprised because this piece of non-fiction, this recollection of a life on the edge, is meticulous and rich with detail and color like she’s never written before.

Gómez pours it all out, letting readers understand the distended underbelly of her life growing up with a sadistic mother (Mami) and a jovial father (Papi) and a shortage of love. It took every breath for her to endure as a first generation child in an economically oppressed area. Gómez carves out a road map for survival that should be followed word-for-word. For if she could overcome all of the impediments and roadblocks on her way to becoming a world-class playwright and Poet Laureate, so can others, mostly by finding the humor where you would least expect it.

Gómez’s first 19 years are riddled with contradictions, but she is up to the task. Time is on her side and she bides it like a champ, grabbing independence so direly needed to assert her true self and ultimately free her from her captors, the two people who would ultimately define her whether she liked it or not. A masterpiece of memoir writing, this book belongs on shelves far and wide…"
-Steve Bloom, co-author Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness and author of Video Invaders

“Magdalena Gómez’s searing honesty excavates what is dishonest within us. What she allows us to witness here is catharsis—hers, and ours—we will not carry the weight of abuse and oppression on our chests any longer. We will sing, and our liberation will terrify tyrants.”
—Diana Alvarez, PhD (a.k.a. Doctora Xingona) ​award-winning poet, songwriter, and opera composer, Quiero Volver: A Xicanx Ritual Opera

" The language dances.The stories sing. My heart broke and was mended, over and over again. Magdalena, the wise elder, offers healing to Magdalena, the wiser child, and in turn opens a path, brimming with love and compassion, to heal all our child selves.  Mi'ja is for those who have endured much suffering at the hands of those who couldn’t or wouldn’t love us in the ways we needed and, more importantly, in the ways we deserved to be loved. Her stories are hers, particular in time and place: various parts of New York City in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The stories are also universal in the best ways; they travel the world, speak many languages, weave connections, and show us how empathy, courage, and creativity are deep wells from which we all can draw as we soldier through this maddening world. Gracías a Magdalena por tus palabras y tu corazón tiernisimo."
—Priscilla Maria Page, MFA, PhD; University of Massachusetts, Amherst Multicultural Theater Certificate Director, Dramaturgy Faculty

"I can't recommend this memoir strongly enough. Yes, Magdalena Gómez is a dear friend/hermana, but this is such a powerful, courageous, hilariously funny personal narrative, where you witness a fierce spirit rise above daily systemic brutalities and epigenetic trauma - you can't lose by reading this. It will give you courage."
​--Beverly Naidus, author of Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame

“At once irreverent and true, Magdalena Gómez writes with the prose of a poet and the soul of a survivor. You’ll find yourself savoring each playful phrase and philosophical rumination. By excavating and writing her coming of age story, Gómez gives her younger self that voice and full humanity the adults in her life too often denied her growing up. Mi’ja is thus a masterclass in the art of reparenting one’s inner child. Heartbreaking and hopeful, this memoir stays with you long after the final page.” 
-Dr. Li Yun Alvarado, PhD, author of Words or Water
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"I was lucky enough to hear Magdalena read from her book at The Longfellow House in Cambridge this past Sunday.
​THUNDER-STRUCK! Unbelievable and magnificent. Can't wait to read the book and hope to hear her live again."
-Nina Lydia Olff, M.Ed; author of American Heritage: Many Tribes, Many Nations

​Painting of Magdalena by Rosa Ibarra.
 

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As I immersed myself in the exploration of this amazing literary contribution, I feel extremely fortunate and awestruck. This is a woman of rare courage who heals the reader through her own intimate painful confessions. It is a work that we will help the reader to revisit the memory lane of their personal past, and to rediscover who they were, who they are and why. We have all had experiences in our developmental years that we would rather keep hidden. The author, however, invites you to courageously re-examine and heal from them. She truly delivers the message that we are stronger and more powerful than we can ever hope to imagine. Kudos to this extraordinary woman and all she endured to be the amazing role model she is today. She truly is awe inspiring.  -Dr. Gloria Caballer-Arce; Visual Artist; Educator; Springfield, MA