Stranger

Extranjera

Speaking words that aren’t

mine

from a place I can’t call

home.

Sometimes

I ask myself,

me pregunto,

if I´m a walking,

talking

symbol

of oppression,

Of a mother´s wish

to throw off her culture

to be like everyone else,

to reject those that scorned her,

to make life easier.

Extranjera

Sounds and smells

so familiar,

yet,

not entirely my own,

A passing memory

or a childhood dream,

Hard to cling to

and muddied by time.

Extranjera

A diluted phenotype

begs questions:

Where are you from?

Why don´t you speak Spanish?

Calls for isolation:

Los primos blancos

The Mexican cousins

Extranjera

Like an uprooted tree

replanted

in unnurturing ground,

looking for nutrients

searching for

a fixed identity

¿De donde soy?

*Originally posted by Julie Duncan on August 24, 2014 at: http://gsswblog.du.edu/globalpractice/2014/08/24/stranger/#more-'