Photo by Jerónimo Bernot on Unsplash
I am here cuz my ancestors refused to give up to give in to give the conquistadores
a free blowjob & build a new empire with smiles on brown faces, I am here cuz in ’85
mí madre didn’t put up a fight when my father came home drunk & forced himself inside
forced wife to drive without a license forced her to take care of him after his freak
construction accident, I am here cuz I am too Mexican for Americans too American
for Mexicans & too feminine for masculine, I am here cuz even as bodies keep dropping
jails keep maxing & whites keep robbing, these large brown hands with nail polish
will rise & fist up for freedom for revenge for tradition & for that little queer brown boi
that has yet to be born.
LUIS LOPEZ-MALDONADO is a Xicanx poeta, playwright, dancer, choreographer, and educator, born and raised in Southern California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Riverside in Creative Writing and Dance. His poetry has been seen in The American Poetry Review, Foglifter, The Packinghouse Review, Public Pool, and Spillway, among many others. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Dance from Florida State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a poetry editorial assistant for the Notre Dame Review, founder of the men's writing workshop in the St. Joseph County Juvenile Justice Center and the Recipient of the Sparks Summer Fellowship 2016. He is currently a co-founder and editor at The Brillantina Project. www.luislopez-maldonado.com
