I didn\u2019t know I spent most of my youth telling half
Truths. I was born under your Floridian sun<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Had my first crush witnessed by North Carolina\u2019s Mountains
Held my first library card under the guidance of Tennessee snow<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet, I\u2019ve always told you I was Mexican
But wasn\u2019t that the answer you wanted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. It was the answer you gave me.
But your answer never changed when you heard<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’re not a true Mexican until you can hold your spice
And speak Spanish. You knew I cried, biting jalapenos<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And you knew I didn\u2019t speak Spanish, but never smiled
When others said I had an American accent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, you told me I couldn\u2019t be white without an \u2018h’ in my name
And I know my color can\u2019t let you label me as passing, like my father<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there was a time when he wasn\u2019t passing. A time when you let
A mother\u2019s accent anoint him as half white and good enough to be a janitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And you taught his father the song We Don\u2019t Speak Spanish Here
So how can I learn the lyrics of Latin language when you limit the chorus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I still love the textured taste of cut steak and mashed potatoes
You can still hear my hum of ordering hamburgers with fries<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve seen you loosen your lips about sun-kissed skin
I\u2019ve heard you hold your tongue over untaught syllables<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But you keep quiet when your claimed child peeks
Eyes wandering side to side to the clicking of clocks<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you legal<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I didn\u2019t know I spent most of my youth telling halfTruths. I was born under your Floridian sun Had my first crush witnessed by North Carolina\u2019s MountainsHeld my first library card under the guidance of Tennessee snow And yet, I\u2019ve always told you I was MexicanBut wasn\u2019t that the answer you wanted? No. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":5515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"art_contributors":[415],"literary_contributors":[360],"class_list":["post-5664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","art_contributors-coyne-rachel","literary_contributors-dunn-cristian"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_4009-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5668,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5664\/revisions\/5668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"art_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/art_contributors?post=5664"},{"taxonomy":"literary_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/literary_contributors?post=5664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}