Submission: Connected to Two Lands

By Victor A. Roldán

Connected by birth and the great American promise: dirt.

I am connected to two lands.

Tierra Méxicana. Chicano eyes, drawn south, forever south.

Mi corazón swells with affection and instinctual reflection.

Tierra de mis abuelos, flesh of Tonantzin, once so rich with sustenance, the gift of Quetzalcoatl.

Cemanahuatl, brown is her sunkissed flesh.

Brown, that differentiates me from them, like truth from “his-story” and roots of antiquity from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

I am connected to two, connected by blood, the lineage of the dog and birth’s promise of dirt to cover my brown face.

México, mi corazón, trampled by boots of greed and carved by mentiras and the knife of defeat. America, land of the rich, land of shattered dreams and that blood stained promise of dirt.

I am connected to two lands.

America, you tell me I was born free, even as you have built, and build, so many towering walls around me…yet, I look to barrio soil and at this very hour there grows a Mexican flower.

Hija mia, Mexicatl, princesa, Chichimecatl, who cries out loud and proud for Brown Power!

México, you give me truth and pride.

America, you give me promise.

I am connected to two lands. I am undefeated with the growth of that Mexican flower.