“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.”