“Rejection on the Culture Border”, Poem by Claudia Rangel She has graduated with an Associate in arts.

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