Dancing Home

Margie felt nervous having to wait outside the principal’s office. She kept her eyes fixed on the huge map that covered the entire wall. Mrs. Donaldson. seemed to be a pleasant woman, but Margie had never had to address the principal all by herself before.
The map’s colors were vivid and bold, showing Canada, the United States, and part of Mexico. Alaska and the rest of the United States were a strong green; Canada was a bright yellow. The remainder of the map, however, showed only a small part of Mexico in a drab sandlike color Margie could not name.
For Margie, maps were an invitation to wonder, a promise that someday she would visit faraway places all over the world.
Looking at this one, Margie could imagine her- self admiring the giant glaciers in Alaska, standing in awe in front of the Grand Canyon, gazing at the endless plains of the Midwest, trying to find her way in the midst of bustling New York City, or peering at the rocky coasts of Maine… but when her eyes began to wander south of the border, she averted her gaze. That is not a place I want to visit, she thought, remembering so many conversations between her parents and their neighbors, tales of families not having enough money to live a decent life, of sick people lacking medical care, and of people losing their land and homes. As she pushed those troubling thoughts aside, Margie’s heart once again swelled with pride, knowing she had been born north of that border, in the United States, an American.
Margie looked over at the girl waiting in the other chair outside the principal’s office. Her cousin Lupe was not as lucky as      Margie, who had been born in the United States. Lupe had just arrived from Mexico and looked completely out of place in that silly frilly dress she had insisted on wearing. “My mother made it especially for me,” she had pleaded, and Margie’s mother had allowed her to wear it. That dress was much too fancy for school. It was so embarrassing for Margie to be seen with a cousin who was dressed like a doll!