Where Are You From?

Where are you from?

they ask.

Is your mom from here!

Is your dad from there?

they ask.

I ask Abacio because he knows everything.

and like me, he looks like he doesn’t belong

Where am I from?

Abuelo thinks.

His eyes squint, like hes looking inside his heart for an answer,

You come from the Pampas

the open, free land, he says.

You’re from the gaucho, brave and strong.

From the brown river that cleanses and feeds the land that gives us the grain for our bread, the milk from the cows.

You’re from mountains so high they tickle Setor Cielo’s belly,

where the condor roosts his family and the jaguar prowls the night.

You’re from hurricanes and dark  storms.