ABSTRACT
Seriously though, let’s start with how everything should start. With a question: What is a Latina? Who can be a Latin@? What about Latinx? The point is, everywhere you go, whomever you talk to, no two people will have the same answers. It’s like creation & evolution or like art & expression. But what I can say about Latinidad is this: es algo organico that sits between ribcage & skin & for many of us, pop-culture has tried to define who we are, as women as men as gente Latina/Hispana/Chicana & everything in-be-tween. Because I am not something you can eat for dinner at some hip-cool new restaurant. Because as a queer brown man I identify more with madre y hermanas than with any male figure in my family, because femininity & masculinity are like red or green in New Mexico, because these terms are interchangeable inside of mí y porque tambien ser Latin@ is a blessing a responsibility, a challenge. But we have always & will always be seen & known as being strong vibrant resilient revolutionary powerful beautiful & inolvidable baby! My poem, Separacíon, explores this complex negotiation of identity, specifically through the relationship with my grandmother.
