I am Peligro

These couple of days I've been remembering the time that I finally got the courage to tell part of my story through a poem. I wrote the poem after coming back from the Border Immersion program that was offered during spring break. During my time there I learned more about myself and the history that I had with this wall that was built to keep "danger" away. This poem represents how proud I have become of coming from two individuals who put everything on the line for the American Dream! 

I am Peligro–

I am a Chican@ born in a land

A land of the free and the home of brave

A land where my worth is based by a slip of paper

A paper that grants me the opportunity to do and go where I please

A paper that makes me the same as some my friends, but different from own:

My familia

            Mi madre

                         Mi padre

                                     Mi little sister

Mi madrecita, a Mexican woman who left her land and everything behind to chase a dream of opportunity

The opportunity to create a better futuro for her own

Mi padre, a Guatemalan man who escaped of the land he calls home to search for a different one

A land that is separated by a wall, una pared, a line, una cerca, a border, la maya

A border made out destructible material that protects what is inside

My sister who at two years old had no clue what we were leaving behind

Her voice, the voice the was not part of the decision to migrate to North

My sister that doesn’t get protected by the wall surrounding this land

The wall that keeps her away from a place that she is supposed to call home, but doesn’t know of

The wall that keeps danger away

But what is danger?

Is my abuelita,

            my tio

                        my cousins

Or my parents?

My parents, who since the day they arrived, have worked with their heart

A heart that is the color of the earth

Sere the danger?

Am I el peligro?

I am the hard working hands of a mother and the heart of full of hope of a father

I am the of Cumbia and Merengue dances until 2 AM

Yo soy the Español mixed with a bit of English

I am a Chican@ Latina woman whose family shouldn’t be separated by a border

For my sister to be in a place where her dreams are not stopped by state laws

I am the creation of the danger they tried to keep away

I am peligro