Letisia Cruz's latest collection, Migrations & Other Exiles, many years in the making, includes poems that began as simple explorations of the poet's past and as a way of accepting the violence of her youth without fear or self-judgment. Cruz's parents immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. A few years later, her father was murdered in the hallway of their apartment building in New Jersey. After his death, Cruz's mother remarried into a deeply abusive relationship that nearly ended her life. These poems are rooted in the violence of those years. They explore immigrant issues, exile, Latina/minority women's issues, the death of father, mother's experience with domestic violence, and the relationships of her youth.