Dejando huella (I):
En este primer número, "Dejando huella" tiene el placer de contar con tres poemas bilingües de las estudiantes: Ángela Basurto-Bonilla y Franchesca Sánchez (University of Wisconsin-Whitewater) y Jasmine Centeno (University of Oregon). En sus poemas, retratan y explican quiénes son ellas, de dónde vienen y qué enfrentan en su día a día.
I am americana-mexicana, de dos razas soy yo.
Vengo de un barrio Hispano, en un estado filled with snow.
En casa de abuelita, pasamos todas las celebraciones,
donde mis tíos están vestidos con sombreros y mis tías en tacones.
Las Quinceañeras, Navidad, Thanksgiving, lo que sea, siempre se celebra la fiesta con la música alta, que se escucha hasta fuera.
Festejamos con tamales verdes, arroz rojo, pozole, y olla grande de frijoles.
De costumbres y canciones mexicanas soy yo.
Vengo de madre soltera, que cruzó la frontera.
Quien se vino con mis abuelos del rancho, quienes vinieron con solo un pancho.
Sin dinero llegaron, pero ahora tienen algo.
Ellos si lo lograron, con tal que sacrificaron todo.
Ahora, están retirados, tomándose una taza de café, leyendo la Biblia,
practicando su fe.
“En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amen”
De sueños mexicanos soy yo.
I am a first generation college student who is filled with family dreams.
De excepciones grandes a veces impossible to achieve.
Consejos con sabiduría y conocimiento,
“Mija, si se puede, ponte las pilas, y enfrentarlo sin miedo.”
De dichos mexicanos soy yo.
El apellido Bonilla, que es de mi abuelo Jose, es un nombre fuerte y con mucho poder.
I proudly pronounce my last name Bonilla, con voz alta y con mucha alegría.
In the future, my last name will not be changed.
For I am, Angela Basurto-Bonilla, hermana, nieta, amiga, prima, hija, y tia.
I am a girl de dos culturas y idiomas mezcladas, Mexicana-Americana soy yo.
Glosario:
- Quinceañeras: Una celebración grande que niñas celebran cuando cumplen sus 15 años. Significando que una niña se convertir a mujer.
Navidad: Christmas
- Tamales verdes: Comida mexicana popular en Mexico hecho de harina de maíz.
Pozole: Una sopa tradicional en Mexico hecho con carne y varios ingredientes.
- “En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amen.”: La señal de la cruz después de rezar.
- “Mija, si se puede, ponte las pilas, y enfrentarlo sin miedo.”: Dichos mexicanos. Transduce en ingles: daughter, yes you can, put on your batteries, and face it without fear.
*****
Somos, JASMINE CENTENO, University of Oregon
They talk about education being opportunity
They said if I studied hard enough, I'd be promised a degree
They talked about something called “the American Dream”
But they never told me...why?
Why? Because I was a child then and needed to be “protected” from my realities?
The first thing American schools taught me was to be silenced, that what I was taught, was the way things were. That everything was black and white. So, I learned to soak it up and believea it all, until I didn’t.
They never told me that once years ago a little morenita was denied the opportunity I was privilged to have today. The school talked about a man named Martin Luther King Jr, who was killed because he wanted more for people like la morenita and many others who were denied.
But, they never told me why this man had to fight for a basic human right.
The school gave me big textbooks with lots of pages. Dentro de tantas paginas, solo habia puros gueros, hombres europeos. Que chido. Nunca fue un problema recordar all the 50 states and 43 presidents, until I went to a Cesar Chavez conference, and didn’t even know quien carajos era.
They never explained to me why all the kids that spoke spanish were recuited for something called ELL. It was such a niche, that I totally forgot to add it under extracirricular activities for high school scholarships. Despues de todo, ELL was the mexican kid’s club.
The school didn’t like spanish. All our books were always in english, and we were always only speaking english.
All the fancy books and reading groups I spent trying to learn one language. Books que me mareaban as soon as reading group would start, cuando me dolian los ojos al ver caer como cascadas las palabras del cuento. Tantas veces que me contaban de la llorona y el cucuy, y nada was as scary as the unknown words I had to read out loud en el reading group de “los burros.” Asi nos decian, to those que would read at 5mph, mientras alla en la esquina oias los gueritos leer tan rapido, que casi pense que si algun dia llegaban a aprender espanol, de atiro pudieran hablar como los mexicanos. They never explained to me why I was the “dumb one” y ellos “the smart ones.” La berguenza que nos pasabamos ahi nomas esforzandonos to be american, pero esa no era yo.
I liked my neighborhood. I remember all the houses on the street and thinking, how lucky we were. Todas se miraban tan bonitas. Viejitas, pero bonitas. All the kids on the block would get together to play ball on the street, until the streetlights turned on. That was our cue, before salian con la chancla o el jalon de orejas. Podia ver the cotton candy white clouds que producia el amanecer. I was always so curious how the sky could produce so many clouds all at once. But they never told me...why?
The school brought the scholastic book fair every year. How exciting. There were so many books, magazines, and cool things. Every year, my parents would give me $3 so I could buy
some of the erasers they had. They never told me why I bought erasers, and other kids walked out with bags of all the cool books.
School became the calm before the storm. It wasn’t just the place I could learn, but it became the place where I could escape reality, until summer came. For the next three months, the school was no longer my teacher, but rather it was the vaccumes that always broke, the windex and vinegar that smelled like spoiled milk, and the dirty washcloths that sprayed humid odors, that would be my new teachers. But..they never told me why I had to work every summer and everyone else went to travel the world.
They never told me why I grew up mastering house chores while my brother played video games, or why I became “la que ya se puede casar” while my companera went off for 3 months of softball camp. Which 8 years later would be the reason she got into the high school softball team and I didn’t. It would be the same reason why she got all the scholarships and I didn’t.
They told me to work harder, when I got to high school, and so I did. And when I did try harder, it didn’t explain why all the white kids still got all the big scholarships, and everyone else got $100-$200 scholarships. They told us that graduating would be such a unique feeling, and that awards night would be even special. So then why did all my hard working brown people walk away with lost hope. Isnt that why we pushed so hard, isn’t that why we had esperanza, isn’t that why our parents took a day off work. But they saw it too, and it made them sad.
And maybe, just maybe, this became the first time they told me..why. Porque, yo y ellos todavia somos “la morenita” que recharon anos atras.
Porque, somos Mexicanos/Latinos/Chicanos. Que por eso, no estamos en los textbooks ni childrens books at the library.
Porque, no hablamos ingles.
Porque, nosotros somos the lazy kids that can’t learn anything. Que por eso le dicen a nuestros padres que tenemos ADHD. Y a ellos mismos, la administracion dice que no les importa la educacion de sus hijos.
Porque, standardized tests cant measure la inteligencia diversa que florece de la comunidad latina.
Porque, somos pobres y por eso vivemos en el barrio de los pobres. El barrio que esta cerca del molino. El mismo molino, que producia las nubes de algodon que cuando era nina, pensaba que poducia el amanecer.
Porque, no teniamos el dinero de comprarte los libros at the annual book fair. Porque, nuestra familia no era de dinero y nos tenias que ayudar a trabajar. Por eso, seguimos siendo ignorados y rechazados.
Por eso, we have to do double the work, while the rest get the work done by doing only what was required.
Among the majority, we still continue being the minority.
School, you assimilated me. You promised equality for all, but your schools and colleges still struggle to provide equity, without using us as tokens to sell the “American Dream” that many of us truly never end up reaching.
Por eso as a Latina, I tell you...I’m more than what you taught me and I’m going to disrupt your privilege by existing in your spaces. I belong, we belong, and I don’t need you to validate me. We are more than our suffering, and the suffering you attempt to impose. Los Latinos, tenemos agency, passion y la capacidad de transformar nuestras comunidades. Si estamos aqui, chingandole, es porque sabemos que nosotros contribuimos a las opportunidades que hemos recibido. Yo si, te digo, your systems can’t stop us from coming in, we know how you work, and our stories are a testeament to your flaws. One day, the roles will be switched, and you will be learning from us, porque si se puede.
*****
Yo soy Domirican/ I am domirican, FRANCHESCA SÁNCHEZ, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
I’m from born in Puerto Rico and raised with Dominican Parents
in the Dominican Republic
From bendición y dios te bendiga
From los amigos son un peso en el bolsillo
From yo quiero que ustedes sean mejor que yo
I am domirican
From musica a to’ volumen los sábados por la mañana porque es dia de limpieza,
De saber que no podemos salir si la casa no está limpia
From ustedes no hacen un carajo en esta casa after we literally cleaned the whole house but forgot to take out the trash
I’m From vamos pal rio a lavar ropa
I am domirican
From el día de navidad se celebra el 24, se abren regalos a las 12 am
and eat leftovers on christmas day.
From waking up early on thanksgiving day sin comer hasta que la comida esté y llegue toda la Familia
From Getting presents el 6 de enero por que es el día de los reyes mago
I am domirican
From arroz con gandules, pernil, ensalada de papa, mollejas en escabeche y alcapurrias
From coquito con ron
I am from mangu, salami, queso, y huevo fritos
From arroz blanco, habichuelas guisadas, pollo guisado, aguacate and tostones
I am from maíz caquiao, dulce de leche cortada y habichuelas con dulces, dulce de maní
I am Domirican
From baseball and Sammy Sosa
From Bachata, Romeo Santos, Juan Luis Guerra and Anthony Santos
Glosario:
- Mollejas en escabeche: Un plato de plátano verde hervido que se marina con mollejas en escabeche, cebollas, pimientos y especias en una robusta vinagreta
- Mangu: El mangú se compone de plátanos hervidos o plátanos verdes. Luego, los plátanos se machacan con mantequilla, margarina o aceite en el agua en la que fueron hervidos. El plato se cubre con cebollas rojas salteadas que se han cocinado con vinagre.
- Maíz caquiao: Postre de maíz con leche y especias entre sopa fría y pudín.
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