Postcolonial Love Poem

Diaz is a registered member of the Gila River Indian Community, which is a part of the Akimel O’odham tribe. The reservation is in an area that consists of what is now central and southern Arizona and the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The O’odham are matrilocal and family groups tended to include extended families.

After the Mexican-American War, the Akimel O’odham had more contact with European and American peoples. The California Gold Rush also brought more contact with colonizing forces. The land the Akimel O’odham lived on was purchased by the Americans in 1853.

The Indigenous peoples of America have survived attempts at genocide since the arrival of the first Europeans, including war, illness, and assimilationism. The ongoing nature of this erasure is a feature of settler colonialism, and it plays prominently in “Postcolonial Love Poem.” Despite the ongoing erasure from what the poem labels “white culture,” Diaz is in a relationship with a white woman. She imbues their relationship with the trademarks of this larger struggle, commenting on the nature of violence and love and how history informs both these things. Ultimately, Diaz finds growth and even restoration in the woman she loves.