When you are born in Mexico

When you are born and raised in Mexico you are just Mexican, you are who you are and there is no problem, but when you come here you become someone else. You are now a “chicano,” “wetback,” “alien,” and you are not understood. In your own country you are not an immigrant, you are you with your family who loves you beyond love and who cares for you beyond caring, but when you come here you must fight for your basic rights, for the rights that others take for granted. You must prove yourself to be good and honest because here you are not who you are, you are a “foreigner”. You come to do work that no one else wants to do. You are glad to have a job, no matter how menial. In your own country you are calm and at peace, but when you come here you must be on your toes and try to fit in and be who you are and not be who you are at the same time. It’s a real trick. In your own country you can think the way you think and it’s okay, but when you come here you must think differently. And that’s the way it is, and is it fair you may ask, and the answer is “no, it’s not fair,” but that’s the way it is and you come here anyway, and you have no choice but to accept it this way because it is what it is and you are who you are and life goes on and somehow you will survive, you will make it, you will figure it all out.
I salute you and I love you.

Soy Lorena.
3/10/10

(Otro día español)