It’s been 3 years since a black boy, Its been 3 years and I still struggle with what he said, Julio Diaz is a junior English major also working on the UTeach and Creative Writing Certificates at the University of Texas at Austin. He is 20 years old and a member of the queer community as a Latinx person. He dreams in black and white and has an affinity for believing that magic exits.
Without colonialism I’d be closer to the earth
Once told me,
“Hispanics—” no. “Latinos were a mistake.”
He said this with a wooing smile,
Sweeping the floor as it was closing time.
I just stood there, invalidated.
not fighting back- I never learned how.
my self-worth crumbled.
He looked at me and said,
“Without White Conquistadors coming to
the Americas, you wouldn’t be here.”
He looked away and finished sweeping the floor.
I just stood there, confused.
Was I supposed to owe thanks to Conquistadors?
For pillaging my home and stripping it of the riches
That belong to me, as son of the equator?
Was I supposed to praise the merciful colonists
for leaving me with no ancestry?
But I think we, Latinos, are no longer a mistake,
But a correction.About the Author
