My favorite poem hangs in my bedroom just above an old, olive green foot locker and to the right of my Abuelo’s guitar. Even though I’ve been known to jokingly call Mary Oliver my “spirit animal” and I’ve had a Shakespeare anthology in my purse for the last few weeks, the poem isn’t either of theirs.
It’s an unassuming poem typed on regular white printer paper; its edges are frayed from 
being tucked into my journal as I’ve moved and traveled around the world over the last several years. I’ve become accustomed to carrying it with me because it speaks so deeply to both my heart and my roots.
This poem was handed in as a homework assignment four years ago by the only student I’ve ever almost had to call the cops on. When she wrote it, this student was fifteen and ohhhh, she was one of the toughest girls I’d ever met. At the time, I was a young, incredibly naive teacher and my classroom antics regularly illicited looks from her that could’ve killed. For two years, we battled each other– one strong willed Latina against another. And not long after my student handed in this poem, life became unmanageable and she had to leave high school for reasons beyond her control.
But several years later, she has reenrolled at the Street School for this semester. Today, she sat across from me at the long table in my classroom, her nose buried in a book and a familiar, sly smile on her face. She’s a different woman today than when I met her five years ago, when she wrote this poem in sophomore English, or even two years ago when she and I finally called a “truce” after finding common ground in tragedy at DSS.
Today when I looked into her eyes during English, I saw the softness and a hope that only a relationship with Christ can bring, along with a renewed passion for education and a sense of maturity brought on by a few difficult years out of school.
Having her back in my classroom after watching her fight for her future these last few years has proven to me that she is my hero. She is hardworking and determined, fire-y, yet kind, emotionally strong and incredibly hopeful. She is everything that makes me proud to be Latina– the great-granddaughter of immigrants who came to America from Mexico in a cattle car, dreaming of a better life for their children, for my father, for me.
When I looked into her eyes today, I could still see the sorrow that comes with being separated from her family back in Mexico– a sense of sorrow that has been there since we met. But above that, I can see the story of redemption the Lord is writing for her, her family, and the family she will likely one day mother. Through education and grace, Jesus is bringing hope for a future different than the fearful past she has lived.
I don’t know that there has ever been a more pertinent time for her poetic words to be shared than on this Inauguration Day. These are the words of a once terrified, angry young woman– one who hid behind an incredibly hard exterior because she saw fear as weakness, and weakness an impossibility if she and her family were going to survive in America. These are the words of a young woman finding her way through unspeakable circumstances, strife, and loss, yet still choosing to fight for possibility because she knows the God who fights for her.
So on this day, whether you’re celebrating a political victory or mourning what seems like a societal loss, I pray that the Lord grants you an eternal perspective today, as well as the grace to love our sojourning brothers and sisters well. May we love and care for our fellow sojourners, since we ourselves are exactly that.
My People
“Wake up, listen to the Mexican music,
It’s not made of tunes and rhythms.
Listen closely.
It’s the person in your yard working hard, making noise,
He who woke up early to feed his kids and didn’t have time to worry about himself.
The sweat on his forehead is honor, the dirt on his hands effort,
The money in his pocket is an everyday goal and freedom is just a word.
Fallen dreamers in the middle of a desert just to chase the uncatchable dream–
“The land of the free”.
Sunburns tell stories,
Cries tell the worries of my people.
Everyday they struggle, living in fear:
Sirens,
Bosses,
Discrimination for being a different color and race.
These people think we came to take their jobs,
The jobs that always pay my people less.
Raising their children in what they would never imagined their home place,
My people saying, “I’m Latino and not Mexican,” ’cause they’re scared to represent.
The day will come when we can get along.
It might be months, years, or even decades,
But we will rise through.
Someday, they will stop labeling my people criminals just for being dreamers…”
“Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.”
(Hebrews 13:1-2)
Louise in the Light 