(Thank you, Gloria)
To be bilingue.
To look in the pasado
while bailando towards a future.
To live with racial profiling
and know you will be told
Go back to Mexico!
To explore north of the
Rio Grande Valley while
craving home and its
spices, oranges, and mouth-
watering elote con chile.
To return
to the border, the cities,
the ghetto, the
peeling-paint houses.
To coexist with la frontera
no matter la distancia,
but to do what has to be done
to self-improve through experiences
and interactions with strangers of all
ethnicities, religions and experiences,
even if it means leaving hogar, dulce hogar
To amarlo todo
even after leaving hogar, dulce hogar,
because the Valley is warm and filled
with besos y abrazos from beloved
family and friends.
To look in the pasado
while bailando towards a future.
To live with racial profiling
and know you will be told
Go back to Mexico!
To explore north of the
Rio Grande Valley while
craving home and its
spices, oranges, and mouth-
watering elote con chile.
To return
to the border, the cities,
the ghetto, the
peeling-paint houses.
To coexist with la frontera
no matter la distancia,
but to do what has to be done
to self-improve through experiences
and interactions with strangers of all
ethnicities, religions and experiences,
even if it means leaving hogar, dulce hogar
To amarlo todo
even after leaving hogar, dulce hogar,
because the Valley is warm and filled
with besos y abrazos from beloved
family and friends.
Magaly Garcia received an MFA in Writing & Publishing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has been published in Along the River III, UTRGV’s The Gallery (2013, 2015), VCFA’s Synezoma, and Francis House. She lives in south-south Texas, and when she isn’t writing she is summoning fantasmas to haunt her cat and cactus.
