Author: Stephanie V

Stephanie Vasconcellos

Feb. 3 2017 WOM393-02 Latina Feminisms

Response 1

Within all of the readings I found a common theme of the diversity of latinidad, and how that means something completely different to each person.The diversity of latinidad is part of the reason I love my unique culture, and the unions it has with other latinxs cultures. I wrote a free verse poem on the ways that I relate to my latinidad, and how it affects my daily life.

I am a person

with the blood line and leftover DNA from multiplications

mitosis

of native Tainos from the earth

European conquerers with slick smooth tongues and swords

and africans taken from our mainland

Knotted twisted coiled hair

smelling like oils and old wood smoke

Do not try to relax mi pelo abuela, the curls are the vibrations of the earth

buzzing into movement.

“Latina”, my tongue moves over the word and flashes of fetishes fill my vision.

I am not all breasts and soft hips and thighs. Pollo guisado. Brown savory liquid fills my bowls and bones. Whistled at, as if I was the moon. Squirt limon in the eyes of men who see me as another conquest. My body is not the land stolen from our people, and you will not rule here. Salty sensation.

The music does not move us, but rather we move the music. Salsa, bachata, merengue are the rhythms of our heart beats and footsteps. Bailo por un amor de la vida.

Mi primos, whole armies of people with dark brown hair and darker eyes our laughs echo not just off the mud walls of the ranchito, pero in the chambers of my heart. Tanto amor.

Hispaniola, eres mi  verdadera patria, millas de mar salada nos separan, pero siento su energía a partir de dos países distancia.