Growing up Latina

Growing up Latina

Being too loud

Being too hairy

Having bushy eyebrows

grew dark and fierce in the middle

Depression was “a white people problem”

And wax your upper lip

First generation to graduate college

Make the immigration worth something

No savings and undocumented

“non-resident, international student”

But couldn’t remember another nation

It was saying words with a weird “accent”

that’s how my mother pronounced it...

It was gold is tacky, don’t wear that it’s ethnic

Every instinct suppressed don’t be other

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Today,

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Bushy eyebrows are in

The ones I had that I cried over

I keep getting told to use my voice

Speak up - I am a woman

Speak up - I am a Latina

Speak up because we told you to be quiet

We still keep all of you quiet

Until you need to speak

Now your eyebrows are in

And now

Now your views are needed to push some other agenda

we’ll get to your needs later.

Now your depression and anxiety and your ADHD and your OCD

They made you strong and you need to be loud so someone else can be strong

And gold is in.

Don’t feel ghetto don’t feel ugly

Natural is beautiful,

Because someone else said

Hair is natural, accept it

“okay, it’s not just white people”

You can have it too.

You can “act white”

You can “act black”

You can’t “act Latina”

You just are Latina

Feedback:All the love I've ever had

It's quiet here...

*Formatting Edits were attempted - unsure if they will stick and do not want to make multiple attempts