And let your warmth tell me I can defy any tempest

Rinconcito is a special little corner in Somos en escrito for short writings: a single poem, a short story, a memoir, flash fiction, and the like.

For My Not So “American” Mother
By Omar Limias

The true epitome of una chingona mexicana
Una loba known to no boundaries
Una mamá who with daring capabilities
dives into the mask that lies behind
El Machismo
The same mask that deceives the eye
Con “la cortesía”
How is it that those hazel eyes melt of autumn
That fender and tames the serpent,
sheer into their masks?
 
Tres guerreros productos de una guerrera
Body scarred from boundless battles
Pero luchadora
And you are mi espada
The same espada my abuelitos
Handed over to you
 
El barrio was your casa
It’s mi casa
Where las mañanitas became my sixth sense
Where la señora de la panadería yelled
¡Buenos días!
 
You and your curls shared a love-hate relationship
Wilfully chaotic, yet
unpleasant with the kiss of rain.
 
You’ve become the glistening moon
and my Midas touch.
Your hand gripped onto mine,
afraid
            of
                  letting
                             go.
Tonight, let your long shades of brown
hair cascade
y canta a la rorro niño
Concealing my eyes from the light
And let your warmth tell me
I can defy any tempest.

Omar Limias, a first-generation Chicano writer born to a working-class family, is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing. Of himself, he writes, “Through his veins runs Purépecha and Mixtec blood, through his heart and soul runs his Mexican heritage, and through political and social consciousness grounded on the Southwest side of Chicago runs his Chicano identity.” 

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