Trust me, I am not a “sore loser.”
When my people were colonized,
and lost all of our land, we took up Spanish surnames
and donned them with pride.
Trust me, I am not a “sore loser.”
When the land we were on became
the United States, we quickly assimilated.
We got rid of our Spanish newspapers, and our grandparents taught us only English.
Trust me, I am not a “sore loser,” ill-informed that Obama was also called “deporter in Chief.”.
We’ve been following immigration policies
before there were marches in the street,
before Trump said Mexicans were rapists.
We’ve studied them in and out and know one thing is for sure -
Our safety is not now, nor has it ever been, truly secure.
Today, they will raid Standing Rock.
They will tell us that “we” — Latinos, Natives, and Immigrants do not belong here.
And before you spew your favorite line: “there is a difference between legal and illegal immigration,”
let me remind you, this story goes back much further than the current election cycle we are in.
These borders intersect our bodies, our families, our identities, and penetrate our emotional landscapes.
And despite these constant fissures, we have persisted.
“Losers” would not have survived all of this.
This post originally was published on February 23, 2017 on Medium.