Themes of immigration, fragmented memories from trauma and complicated mother-daughter relationships fill the pages of the latest poetry book by Juania Sueños.
Sueños, a creative writing alumna and executive director and founder of the literary nonprofit and publication “Infrarrealista Review,” received the 2026 National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Tejas Foco Poetry Award on Feb. 28 for her latest publication “Topography of a Border/Line Bird.” The award recognizes a work of poetry that best represents a significant topic related to the Mexican American, Chicana or Chicano experience in Texas, according to a press release from NACCS.
Literary professionals and enthusiasts filled the Wilhelmina Cullen Auditorium at the University of Houston-Downtownto recognize Sueños for what Sara Ramirez, her mentor, calls “captivating” poetry. Sueños wrote her poetry to convey the culture shock and complex feelings that come with being an immigrant.
“I think [“Topography of a Border/Line Bird” is for] anybody who is an immigrant or not, just anybody who struggles with feeling isolated,” Sueños said. “Feeling just like you have so many emotions and so many thoughts, and you can’t convey them to other people … so you often feel lonely.”
Sueños originally attended Texas State to work on a fiction novel but found herself writing more poetry than anything after befriending poets. She said poetry allows her to express deeper emotions than any other genre.
“I just felt freer to explore this sense of grief or just generally more intense emotions,” Sueños said.
Ramirez, also an assistant professor of English at Texas State, was on Sueños’ thesis committee and later became part of the board for Infrarrealista Review. She wrote in an email to The Star that she believes Sueños is set to do great things because of her commitment to uplifting the voices of herself and others.
“Like all of the Chicana literary greats, [Sueños] is overall committed to the written and felt word through Infrarrealista as well as her personal writing,” Ramirez wrote. “Her work is, as this award attests, captivating. She writes from the heart and gives language to inherited, psychic pain.”
Sueños said she felt a sense of disbelief when she found out she would receive the NACCS Tejas Foco award. She finished writing “Topography of a Border/Line Bird” about four years before publishing it, so to her, it was a journey to honor the version of herself that wrote this book. Through the many complex emotions, she felt a sense of pride in being recognized by people from her culture and background for her poetry.
“It just feels incredibly validating to have an institution of people who are from my background praise my book,” Sueños said. “[I] feel really proud and excited and also in disbelief a little bit still.”
Cloud Cardona, a marketing coordinator at Gemini, Inc. and co-founder of Infrarrealista Review, graduated with a master’s in creative writing just before Sueños. Though they didn’t have much overlap in their classes, they quickly became friends after discovering they shared similar backgrounds.
Cardona was present for the entire writing process. She read many versions of “Topography of a Border/Line Bird” and watched Sueños grow alongside the book. She said she believes what makes Sueños’ work so special is how hybrid it is. Sueños uses various types of writing styles to convey her message, ranging from a structured novel in verse to an unstructured stream of thoughts.
“I think that really speaks to her ethos as a writer,” Cardona said. “The blending, the experimentation, the different forms, the prose, the poetry, just blending all of this and figuring out the best way to say something despite the genre … That’s what makes that collection really … unique and special.”
Cardona was an editorial fellow for the Center for the Study of the Southwest, which offers a platform to people studying and publishing about the peoples of the Southwest, during her time at Texas State and loved the work that it did. She and Sueños were inspired by Cardona’s time there to create a version of that work tailored specifically to Texas writers and poets. They named this effort Infrarrealista Review, after the original movement of the same name in Mexico City.
“[The movement was] very social justice oriented, very disruptive,” Cardona said. “We still love that spirit.”
The Infrarrealista Review is Sueños’ way of promoting the people and works that inspire her. Sueños’ next steps involve leaning into more fiction writing and working on her poetry, which seems to be “unavoidable” for her. She is also aiming to continue highlighting Texan authors with Infrarrealista Review, especially those who don’t have access to master’s programs.
“Our ethos is to highlight other Texan authors, and especially authors that are outside of institutions, that maybe are [just] starting out,” Sueños said.
For more information on the Infrarrealista Review, visit https://infrarrealistas.org/#. To view “Topography of a Border / Line Bird,” visit Mouthfeel Press at https://www.mouthfeelbooks.com/product/topography-of-a-border-line-bird/77.
