Praise For
SCREW THE WALL!
In Screw the Wall, Juan Manuel Pérez answers the question: what can brown poetry do for you?
He does so as he digs in and swings for and at the fences. This book of impactful poetry deals
mainly with barriers-barriers erected by poverty, prejudice, culture, and language; barriers
imagined and real; barriers conquered, and barriers left to be scaled. These poems range from the
humorous, to the satiric, to the poignant, to the nostalgic. A few of these worthwhile works might
strike a nerve or two with their readers, but as Pérez reminds us about the border wall in his
poem A Promising Letter to a Worrisome Trump, "No need to worry; We'll get over it!"
Likewise, In Screw the Wall Juan Manuel Pérez has hit a home run deep over the wall.
Alan Berecka
author of The Hamlet of Stittville
2017-2018 Corpus Christi Poet Laureate
If you have never heard the poetry of Juan Manuel Pérez then you are in for a treat. You must
hear his words, as reading them is not enough. He writes the poems that many are afraid to
discuss. He writes the poems many will hide from. He writes the poems that all need to hear. His
words are diverse and full of compassion, but he speaks the hard truths our Nation struggles with
daily. These truths have divided families, increased the struggles for minorities (which are
becoming the majority), and left those affected silent and waiting for a chance. Pérez offers
words full of insight and empathy and his influences are strong.
Malia A. Pérez, Ed.D.
author of Everything Depends Upon The Little Things
2009-2015 World Book Night Ambassador and Three-Time Teacher Of The Year
In his most recent poetry collection, Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems, Juan
Manuel Pérez invites us into his soul, beckoning: "I invite you into my soul / Somewhere
between Texas and Mexico." And it is in this "somewhere" where his poetry happens: poetry of
lived experience, poetry of place, poetry where "America is the land of the lost" and the only
thing that will shine a light in its dark path is love. This collection is full of "strong, bronze
Chicano poems," and I am reading.
Octavio Quintanilla
author of Wasted Time
2018-2020 San Antonio Poet Laureate
Pérez, Juan Manuel: - Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of indigenous descent and the current Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O' Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin's Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume 1 (2014), and Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), as well as, the co-editor of The Call Of The Chupacabra (2018). He is the 2011-2012 San Antonio Poets Association Poet Laureate and the Lone Star State's only EL Chupacabras Poet Laureate (For Life). The former Gourd Dancer for the Memphis Tia Piah Big River Clan Warrior Society is also a Pushcart Prize Nominee as well as a SEATTAH Scholar (Striving For Excellence And Accountability In The Teaching Of Traditional American History) through the University Of Dallas. Juan is a ten-year Navy Corpsman/Combat Marine Medic with experience in the 1991 Persian Gulf War with the 2 nd Marines and the 1992 Hurricane Andrew Relief Marine Air Group Task Force. This two-time Teacher of the Year, along with his wife, Malia (a three-time Teacher of the Year), is a co-founder of The House of the Fighting Chupacabras Press. Currently, Juan worships his Creator, teaches public high school history, writes poetry, and chases chupacabras in the Texas Coastal Bend Area.
