{"id":2308,"date":"2019-05-20T12:08:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T16:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/?p=2308"},"modified":"2019-05-20T12:13:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T16:13:26","slug":"think-on-this-como-tu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/2019\/05\/20\/think-on-this-como-tu\/","title":{"rendered":"Think on This: Como t\u00fa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our team at Community Food Action understands that we are working in a political landscape that is attempting to create an American identity through exclusion. This is a mistaken path, one that is also responsible for hardship and displacement, as well as emotional crises. In resistance, we strive to do work that is informed by and is in service of excluded stories. The quality of our work is based on cultivating our ability to hear multiple stories and craft responses to the specific problems people in Mt. Eden experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

We know that assaults on our humanity do not make us less than human. The nature of these assaults simply allows us to see unjust political agendas for what they are. Oftentimes, we struggle against oppressive politics that attempt to define us, too often forgetting that we are already justly, creatively, and expressively<\/span><\/em> political. Our experiences, thoughts, and words are pieces of our humanity\u2013polychrome expressions of living.<\/span><\/p>\n

We hope that you enjoy these words by Richard Blanco. His poem stirs anger and questions about identity formation in light of immigration and displacement, a reality against which CFA will not turn our backs. Please be sure to also read the poem that Blanco references, Como T\u00fa by Roque Dalton.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Como T\u00fa \/ Like You \/ Like Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Blanco<\/strong><\/p>\n

{for the D.A.C.A DREAMers and all our nation\u2019s immigrants}<\/p>\n

. . . my veins don\u2019t end in me<\/em>
\nbut in the unanimous blood
\nof those who struggle for life . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

. . . mis venas no terminan en m\u00ed<\/em>
\nsino en la sange un\u00e1nime
\nde los que luchan por la vida . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Roque Dalton, Como t\u00fa<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Como t\u00fa<\/strong><\/em>, I question history\u2019s blur in my eyes
\neach time I face a mirror. Like a mirror, I gaze
\ninto my palm a wrinkled map I still can\u2019t read,
\nmy lifeline an unnamed road I can\u2019t find, can\u2019t
\ntrace back to the fork in my parents\u2019 trek<\/strong>
\nthat cradled me here. Como t\u00fa<\/strong><\/em>, I woke up to<\/strong>
\nthis dream of a country I didn\u2019t choose<\/strong>, that
\ndidn\u2019t choose me\u2014trapped in the nightmare
\nof its hateful glares. Como t\u00fa<\/strong><\/em>, I\u2019m also from<\/strong>
\nthe lakes and farms, waterfalls and prairies
\nof another country I can\u2019t fully claim either.
\nComo t\u00fa<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong> I am either a mirage living among
\nthese faces and streets that raised me here,<\/strong>
\nor I\u2019m nothing, a memory<\/strong> forgotten by all
\nI was taken from and can\u2019t return to again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like memory, at times I wish I could erase
\nthe music of my name<\/strong> in Spanish, at times
\nI cherish it, and despise my other syllables
\nclashing in English. Como t\u00fa<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong> I want to speak
\nof myself in two languages at once<\/strong>. Despite
\nmy tongues, no word defines me<\/strong>. Like words,
\nI read my footprints like my past, erased by
\nwaves of circumstance, my future uncertain
\nas wind. Like the wind, como tu\u0301<\/strong><\/em>, I carry songs,
\nhowls, whispers, thunder\u2019s growl. Like thunder,
\nI\u2019m a foreign-borne cloud that\u2019s drifted here,
\nI\u2019m lightning, and the balm of rain. Como tu\u0301<\/strong><\/em>,<\/strong>
\nour blood rains for the dirty thirst of this land.
\nLike thirst, like hunger, we ache with the need<\/strong>
\nto save ourselves<\/strong>, and our country<\/strong> from itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our team at Community Food Action understands that we are working in a political landscape that is attempting to create an American identity through exclusion. This is a mistaken path, one that is also responsible for hardship and displacement, as well as emotional crises. In resistance, we strive to do work that is informed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsettlement.org\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}