Caridad Moro-Gronlier was named Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County on April 1, the first day of Poetry Month.

“I feel honored and grateful for the post, and I look forward to bringing more poetry to, for and from our community,” Moro-Gronlier said.

Her responsibilities will include public readings, community projects, and outreach.

Her collection of poems “Tortillera” invokes the reclamation of the word tortillera, which means lesbian in Spanish and is considered a slur in some Cuban-American households.

“So I realized in order to tackle my own preconceived notions regarding that word in the homophobic testament that it was, I was just going to wear the T-shirt,” Moro-Gronlier said. “You know what I mean? I was going to claim the word, I was going to reframe it, and as a result, do away with the shame associated with the word.”

Moro-Gronlier grew up in Los Angeles before moving to Miami when she was nine. She reflects on the queerness of her childhood, spending time at backyard parties with her family instead of going to slumber parties with her peers.

She said that when she went to college, the world opened its doors for her and she started investigating her life experiences.

“My background, growing up, what were the expectations? I was the firstborn daughter to Cuban immigrants, there were a lot of expectations,” Moro-Gronlier said. “But within those expectations, there wasn't a lot of freedom. I was expected to go to college and get a nice career, but the underlying expectation was that I would, of course, marry, have children, live the traditional heterosexual paradigm which I did, but then rejected. So I did what they wanted until I realized that pattern just did not, could not contain me. So you know, I smashed it and built another one.”

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