EUGENE CALDERÓN
Alabama, 1942
No one knows how to classify
an East Harlem Puerto Rican
gang leader.
In the white officers’ barracks,
everyone complains that I’m too dark,
but in the black officers’ barracks,
they tell me I’m too light,
so the Tuskegee Airmen
end up inventing
a third barrack,
just for me
and one other
Latino.
Then they start moving me
from state to state,
all over this cold,
snowy country,
just to keep me
from gaining
enough
training hours
to fly …
but I know the meaning
of the word perseverance.
I’ll never give up, so they won’t
defeat me!