Guillermo Gómez-Peña

México-U.S.




Mexico Is Sinking


Mexico is sinking
California is on fire
and we are all getting burned
aren’t we?

but what if suddenly the continent turned upside down?
what if the U.S. was Mexico?
what if 200,000 Anglo-Saxicans
were to cross the border each month
to work as gardeners, waiters,
3rd chair musicians, movie extras,
bouncers, babysitters, chauffeurs,
syndicated cartoons, feather-weight boxers, fruit-pickers, and
anonymous poets?
what if they were called waspanos,
waspitos, wasperos or waspbacks?
what if we were the top dogs?
what if literature was life, eh?
what if yo were you
and tú fueras I, Mister?




en Warrior for Gringostroika, St. Paul: Graywolf Press, 1993