by Daniel A. Olivas
From: La Bloga

 

Blood, Frogs…
Do you know me, Adonai?
A latecomer to your Seder table?
A visitor waiting for Elijah?

Vermin, Wild Beasts…
You blessed the Moabite,
Ruth, with an honored place
in Ketuvim, so there must be
hope for me.
Pestilence, Boils…
My people have suffered, too,
though nothing like the Inquisition
or the Holocaust. But the Aztecs
were fooled and then slaughtered,
raped and oppressed by
the Spaniards who rode proud horses
roughshod over meso-America
creating a mixed gente,
the Mestizos. And then discrimination,
a glass ceiling we hit, in this great
country, as we scratch towards
the American dream…

Read the Entire Poem Here

Daniel A. Olivas is the author of seven books and editor of two anthologies, including the landmaark anthology, Latinos in Lotusland (Bilingual Press, 2008), which brings together 60 years of Los Angeles fiction by Latin@ writers. He grew up near the Pico-Union and Koreatown neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He now makes his home northeast of downtown Los Angeles with his wife.