LANGUAGE

LUISA

I was born here, as were my parents,

and their parents, on and on for centuries.

Some of my ancestors were mexicanos,

others Cheyenne and Ute.

Now, suddenly, a man named Fred Walsen moves

into our little town, builds a brick house, and starts

to complain, saying no one in the town of Los Leones

should think of this place as anything other

than Walsenburg.

So we call him el Fred.

Doesn’t he realize that English

is the newcomer

in our Spanish-speaking

tierra/land?