Book Review
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Title: Volveré…con el alma silenciosa: poemas de Consuelo Gómez
Author: Consuelo Gómez ; edited by Gabriel González Núñez
Publisher: Independently published
Genre: Poetry
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 147 pages
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 9798325159923
Language: Spanish
Price: $10.00
Reviewed by Jessie Christensen for the Association of Mormon Letters
In April 2024, Gabriel González Núñez shared a brief history of his discovery of the poetry of Consuelo Gómez, an early church member in Mexico who published her work in the periodicals of the Mexican Mission. He also created a Kickstarter to fund the publication of two books of Spanish-language poetry by LDS poets: Consuelo Gómez and Ruben Ransud. Thankfully his funding campaign was successful and the collections from both of these poets are now available to purchase.
Consuelo joined the Church in 1925 in Pachuca, Mexico. She was educated at Methodist schools and worked as a teacher in one before being fired after joining the Mormons. She spent many years teaching in Sunday School and priesthood classes and spent last two decades of her life as the principal of a private LDS school known as the Héroes de Chapultepec in San Marcos. (Consuelo is one of the Church members profiled in F. Lamond Tullis’ volume Grass Roots in Mexico).
The title of the volume, Volveré…con el alma silenciosa comes from one of Consuelo’s poems and translates as “I will return…with my quiet soul”. This quiet conviction can be seen throughout the collection in her poems about faith, the joys and challenges of teaching, her fellow Church members, and the beauty of the natural world. Her poems reflect the themes and style of similar poetry by Mormon women published in English-speaking periodicals of the twentieth century.
At the same time as Consuelo’s poetry touches on familiar themes and images in Mormon literature, it is also very Mexican in its approach. Many of her poems reflect the Modernismo of poets like Ruben Dario and Jose Marti in their vocabulary and style. One section of the book collects poems about Mexico that reflect her pride in her country and its history and symbols. One of my favorite selections is a group of calaveritas, which are short, humorous poems written about particular people. She pokes fun at both local Mexican members like Lemuel Flores, as well as mission leaders like Claude Bowman. Most of her poems are more serious, including those honoring the prophets Heber J. Grant and George Albert Smith.
Publication and distribution of the literature of non-English speaking Latter-day Saints is a task still in its infancy. This book demonstrates the essential role of literature in telling the history of Church members throughout the world. You can read a profile of Consuelo in Tullis’ history of early Mexican Church members and learn some facts about her life. But you cannot really know her personality or understand her feelings without reading her poetry. Volvere…con el alma silenciosa paints a vivid picture of what life was like for early Mexican Mormons. I hope this is only the first of many books that will enrich and expand our understanding of what it means to be both a Mormon woman and a poet.