He describes "the borough always on the alert, another black man hunted" as he reimagines anti-hero Larry Davis, also known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem. He highlights the ongoing moves of families at midnight when the rent was due in the El Building. Both Larry and the required migrations pay homage to the resilience of black and brown urban communities' insistence on living visible and memorable lives while chocking on assimilation, as masterfully describe in Benevolent Assimilation.
The Moor of the Bronx is a testament to urban chaos and survival. In these times of racial reckoning, division and uncertainly, we need the medicine that Ricardo serves in each of his poems. In order to embrace our shared humanity, we must listen to the lived experience and honor the grit of our mostly invisible and discounted heroes.-Marta Maria Miranda-Straub, Author of Cradled by Skeletons: A life in Poems and Essays, A bilingual memoir.