EMILIA CASTAÑEDA
California, 1933
Papi has worked in Los Angeles
for so many years that you would think
he’d be appreciated for his experience
and skill, but instead, just as soon as the economy
weakens and millions of people need work,
my father is suddenly thought of as a thief
who steals some other American’s job.
Will we really be deported?
My brother Francisco and I were born here,
and at school we speak English …
but now we are informed that if we want to stay
in the United States, we must declare ourselves
to be orphans with no living parents, so that we
can be placed in an orphanage, given away
to strangers. When we refuse to deny
that our father is alive,
we’re shoved into a noisy crowd
of other helpless children
at the train station,
all of us forced to travel south
with our parents, going “back”
to Mexico, a country we’ve
never
even
seen.
Why are we being punished?
Our families have never committed
any crime!