“When the Hate Comes” by Wendy Luna Garcia
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…It’s coming from all over South and Latin America.”
– Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Campaign, June 2015
They threatened us off our land plots
and we forgot our mother tongues
like, obedient citizens, we left,
leaving our maize, squash, textiles,
advanced systems until we could
see nothing else but squares of sienna
until we could hear nothing else but
pats of soles on scrolls of sand or
the bird’s delighting over their young
when it is They who have stripped our
young’s delight, but who is to blame?
Us or Them? what is land but land?
I whisper my land my land my land
and it’s synonymous with my country,
vacancy,
foreignness
We build. I build.
They take it away
Biographical Note: Wendy Luna Garcia is a third-year student at the University of Wyoming, majoring in International Studies with Latin America and Governance and Conflict Resolution concentrations. Additionally, she is minoring in Honors, Latinx Studies, and Creative Writing. Her inspirations stem from the matriarch in her family, music, and films. Outrageous Fortune will be her second publication, and she is proud that her work will be among such ingenious creative work. Besides writing, she loves reading, cooking, and dancing to Shakira at full volume.”