Where Are You From?

Throughout the past week we have discussed borders, both metaphysical and physical and what they mean within our communities. Through these discussions, I felt the inclination of writing about my own borders and the relevance they hold on my intersecting identities. I write about self-transformation in the form of healing, something that Gloria Anzaldua writes about through understanding Mestiza Consciousness. As a womyn of color from immigrant parents, I write about what those identities mixed in with the wrath of patriarchy and Machismo look like in my own growth and upbringing. As well as recognizing that I am both privileged and disadvantaged in my life. With this, I share my thoughts and feelings while learning not only about Chicana Lesbian Literature, but also about myself and everything I encompass.

Where are you from?

I am from my mothers womb

connected to her soul

built and constructed inside her body

with a mixture of love for and abuse from

my father

I am from my mothers womb

created and fostered in the strawberry fields

and the sweet aroma of agriculture

molded with the hard working hands of my parents

I am stuck between two lands that do not want me

‘ni de aqui, ni de alla’

Pocha, gringa, Americana

indigena

I am from my mothers flesh and blood

'con miles heridas abiertas'

I continue to shed blood for the rape of my people

longing for a connection with my indigenous gente 

I am from my mothers skin

shedding the pain her mother passed down to her

I shed the machismo that left her bruised

I am healing

from the pain my mothers lived

and has survived.

I am surviving

for her, my home.

-Eunice C. Gonzalez-Sierra