38 Speak English – This Is America!
Written by Erika V. Macias Hernandez
The poem “Speak English – This is America!” was written by Erika V. Macias Hernandez, she is an Alumni of Gender Women and Sexuality Studies, a friend to the class, and the daughter of a current student. She is delighted to share this poem and contribute to the zine.
Ever since I could remember
I grew up with a very Latin family
My big family
Loud
Loving
Proud
Stereotypical one could assume
But that didn’t matter to me
I felt at home
Once I moved into the suburbs with an endless population of gueros
I saw less and less of my culture
No more loud, loving voices that were and still are
Musica to my ears
My mother raised by sister and I, alone, away
Away from a place we once called home
Here we are not Mexican
No
Here we are quiet citizens in a suburban society
Between my mother perfecting her English
And my sister and I enrolled in elementary school
Our native tongue was falling between the cracks
Now I heard
“What did you learn in school today”
And not
“⸮Qué aprendiste hoy mi vida?”
I could feel myself change
I wasn’t proud like I once was
Was it shame?
Was it ignorance?
Though I believed I was an American
Others saw an immigrant
An outsider
With the news saturated in headlines
“Immigrants are taking our jobs!”
“GET THEM OUT NOW!”
“They could at least speak English”
We were seen as the attackers
And yet
Reading those words were like cuchillos to the heart
When I began to think in English
It instilled the fear of losing a great part of who I am
Mi madre
Would come home and tell us to speak English
“It will be easier this way”
It didn’t feel like it
All those nights I had seen mi madre
weeping
Asking herself over and over
Am I doing the right thing?
It felt that no matter what we did
We would never be accepted
But not as a Halloween costume
Or an exotic mystery to be discovered
Or a Spanish homework cheat sheet
But as me
All of me
A blend of two opposing cultures
