Celebracion!

       Hey everybody, happy National Hispanic Heritage Month!* Even under the current administration we are encouraged to celebrate the ways in which Hispanic Americans have enriched our life here in the United States. Where would we be without tacos, salsa, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Rita Moreno, Lin Manuel Miranda, Sonia Sotomayor...?

    Let's not forget the Latinx poets who enrich our national verse: Gary Soto, Ada Limon, Richard Blanco (who spoke at Obama's second inuaguration!), and many more...including Javier Zamora, who wrote this poem.

   Nó, Actually, Soy Salvadoreño

    "EL Sal-va-doh-RE-AN Salva-doh-RAN, Salva-DOH-RÍ-an,"
    los mui-muis, we don't even know what
    to call ourselves. How to eat
    a pupusa: ¿fork & knife? or
    ¿open it up & treat it like a taco? but
    then, we're betraying our nationalistic (read:
    anti-black, anti-indigenous) impulse
    to not mix with anyone else. ¿& what's
    with jalapeños in the curtido,
    cipotes? ¿With using spicy "salsa"
    instead of salsa de tomate? There's too many
    "restaurantes," one side of the menu: Mexican,
    the other, platos típicos. Typically
    I want to order the ensalada, but then
    they bring me an actual salad.
    I say: cóman miercoles, they
    want to charge me extra for harina de arroz. Extra
    por los nueagados. There's
    nowhere I'd rather be most
    than in Abuelita's kitchen, watching her
    throw bay leaves, tomatoes, garlic, orégano
    into the blender, then chicharrón,
    helping her sell to everyone that knows
    she made the best pupusas
    from 1985 to 2004. By then,
    Salvadoreños became "Hermanos Lejanos,"
    we traded Colón for Washingtón. By then,
    Los Hermanos Flores looked for new singers
    every time they returned from Los Yunaited
    to San Salvador. Stay, no se vayan,
    es-tei, no sean dundos, was all
    those Salvadoreños could say.
    We didn't listen & came here
    only to be called Mexican or Puerto Rican,
   depending on the coast. We had to fight
   for our better horchata, not
   the lazy whiter one with only rice. & when
   we didn't want to fight
   we tried to blend, speak more "Mexican,"
   more ira, more popote, more
   no pos guao. ¡Nó, majes!
    ¡No se me hagan dundos,
    ponganse trucha vos!
   When anyone wants to call you: Mexican.
    You can just say: Nó,
    actually, andáte a la M-
    racista cara de nacionalista.

 

    *(Actually, the celebration runs from 9/15 to 10/15...so, happy Septoctember, everybody)