‘See Yourself Through My Voice’: A Shared Threshold

Between childhood and adulthood lies a threshold: adolescence and youth, years of searching, growth, and self-definition. María Baranda’s anthology, “See Yourself Through My Voice: Poetry by Young People for Young People,” enters that territory through 26 poems by 16 poets and illustrations by seven artists.

Published by Ediciones Castillo in 2026, the book gathers poets from several generations of the Foundation for Mexican Literature. Its contributors include Alejandro Adame, Ana Saldaña, Ángel Vargas, Clemente Guerrero, Esteban López Arciga, Jorge Luis González, Lázaro Izael, Lucía Cornejo, Lucián Rueda, María Gómez de León, Nicté Toxqui, Nora Cruz Flores, Orlando Mondragón, Rebeca Leal Singer, Renata García Rivera, and Sarah Silva.

The anthology’s subjects multiply alongside its voices. The poems move through the body, losses involving friends or pets, the mirror as an image of the other self, animals, nature, sport, accidents, objects, and violence. They trace an unending search for the self, whether in a snail, a mirror, another person, or a game.

The collection makes room for genuine feeling: joy and pain, longing and anger, desire and jealousy. Some poems turn toward grief, violence, and farewells. Others find brightness in travel and first passions. Small acts of affirmation sit beside death, heartbreak, and disappointment, including the ordinary decisions that help young people define themselves.

The review describes adolescence and youth as a vacant lot where everything feels new and unbearable, yet also radically beautiful. Experience, failed relationships, and disappointment eventually turn that novelty into everyday life.