Rejection on the Culture Border
My skin color is not true
Compared to my culture
I am light but
My blood runs dark
My Language is broken
My roots are built from native ground
Where the culture is thick and rich
Where pride is at its highest
Yo soy Mexicana
But to the eyes of my people
To the eyes of my full blooded kin
I am not what I was born as
I am a second generation and my Spanish is broken
My pride is broken
My image destroyed
I am not what I was born to be
I do not display the Carmel enriched
Flavor of a true Mexicana
Or attain the Spanish language at its best
I am a temp
But the rest of them are permanent
If you can’t speak right then don’t speak at all
When I practiced the words
Upon the audience in which I crave the acceptance
Of my generation Kin
It felt like stones smashing against my skin from
The criticism
The rejection and mockery for
The runt of the litter
But I swear to you I am not a lost cause
If you were to open me up,
You would see the ripe green color of an avocado bleed threw
And the core pulsate the same way my heart does
The smell of chocolate burst into the air
The same aroma that took you back to the old days
Where money was not what made you rich
But the love and thought that was put into that warm
Chocolate Mi Abuleta would make
I am no different inside or out
We are no different if you look
At it biologically
And I should not be shamed for
The Language barrier
I am a full blooded Mexican born on U.S soil
I am proud of the ground in which covered the bare feet of my
Great grandparents that walked the land
That led me to where I am today
By: Claudia Rangel