Matthew, talking You're breathing my air you come here and use my air every day you take it for your own lungs. I know when you push it out I breathe it in – then my air's been inside you. I inhale what you exhale, air that was inside the throat you're talking Spanish from – holding my air inside your chest holding it next to your Mexican heart before you give it back to me. Vicente, talking You believe I'm not so good, not good as you, gringo boy, but you don't know anything, even in your own language su lenguaje, su idioma – qué hard sharp tongue of sound no one can love in, no one can cry in. You don't know how to talk a baby to sleep, how to make your mami smile, your papi proud. No sabes, chico. You sure don't know why Aurelia won't look at you on the street, after school – but I do. Aurelia, talking You think we all come from Mexico and up here maybe that's the most. But also Guatemala – do you know where that is? And even Colombia far away as that is from this huerta far from these apples and pears. I wonder if you even know these other countries are in the world with you. Like you call your country America but it isn't – this place is only los Estados Unidos, the United States of America, a chunk of a chunk, a piece of a piece del norte – ¿comprendes? Do you know Canada has more land, up there on top of you? Do you know Brazil is almost as big, and it's only one part of América del Sur, the whole south? You think you know where you are, where everybody is and should be. But do you? Becky, talking You speak the language pretty good, except you have that accent, you don't sound right when you're talking English. You say it like different, different from how it really is. My family came here a hundred years ago. My gramma says they had to, had to leave home. She tells me stories. She has the hat her own gramma wore on the boat, coming here. She worked in a factory making shirts instead of high school. She couldn't read in English. So that's why I'm asking: Why did you come? Did you have to leave home?
—Judith Arcana
From 4th Period English, Ash Creek Series, Judith Arcana & Ash Creek Press, 2009.
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