No sé cuántas veses
My mother has told me
Que es importante
To speak Spanish

I don’t know how many times
Mi madre dicho
That it’s important
Hablar espanol

The words are selectively evanescent
Backwards sometimes
Mumbled sometimes
Dream Like

The words are selectively evanescent.
But I want them to stay and be permanent;
To be rooted to the ground.
Instead they float away
As I struggle to grasp for them
And make a fool of myself

But I am a fool
Only a fool would forget their way home
Only a fool would forget their name
It’s like a bad case of amnesia

Now I’m a dog playing poker,
A cartoon mouse with a big head and ambitions for world domination
A smart-ass bunny wabbit
A Latino who doesn’t speak Spanish.

Yet I look and act the role
A Latino janitor.

I look and act the role but I’m not a fucking stereotype
Stereotypes are static and non-responsive
Stereotypes are transparencies.
They don’t bleed.

I may look and act the role but I’m not a fucking stereotype
My vocabulary consists of more than ‘si, senorita’
Puta

A stereotype is nothing but a display in the zoo
A 2D image on your TV
Blackface comedy

I yams what I yams
Ñame lo que ñame
A translation is like a reversal in gravity
Or a visit from a Cheshire cat.
Meanings become weightless
Definitions become undefined.
I guess that makes me all of the above.

No sé cuántas veses
My mother has told me
Que es importante
To speak Spanish

I don’t know how many times
Mi madre dicho
That it’s important
Hablar espanol