APRENDER

During the 1970s, the term Latina was invented

to describe a woman of Latin American ancestry

living in Latin America or the United States.

Merriam-Webster, however, does not consider

the term “Afro-Latina” a word.

To them,

America’s most trusted dictionary,

Latin American people of African ancestry do not exist.

It is merely hearsay,

a term attributed to those who have felt the noose,

but have only loosely been hung by the tree.

Or maybe she is the tree,

the way her roots always got their foot on the necks of all cultures.

Thank a Black woman for always giving you something to be micro-aggressive about.

Latina, an adjective that behooves to be seen.

Afro-Latina, a myth, a folktale,

a thing she becomes after the search party leaves,

like she hadn’t been standing there all along,

clearing the forest while you grind her bones to fertilize the soil.

This isn’t a metaphor for Black girl magic or anger,

this is me, no longer flat-ironing my fro to fit within the margins of a term

dependent on my proximity to whiteness.

I am not Black and Latina, I am a Black Latina.

I am anomaly–

I am anomaly stranger’s whisper about in disbelief,

confident my tongue don’t conjugate like theirs.

I am creating my own narrative before they write me out the wrong story.

Contort my surviving into their savior, build me a shrine to die on.

And haven’t we always been damaged goods?

Sold at a bargain price.

Carbon copy us into ash.