I didn’t know I was so Latino
Until walking the stone cold courts of Stanford
Brahman Lilly white faces that glare
Behind political pretensions
Aquamarine eyes burning holes into my skin
Like a child pressing harder and harder
On a light brown crayon building wax
Until beige becomes walnut
Over and over outside the lines
“See what I made Daddy, a Mexican”
Walnut becomes a dark burnt mahogany

I’m Latino
Look at me
There’s a sign outside my door
“Don’t feed the greasy Chicano..
but if you do, 3 lengua tacos
1 chimichanga and a Corona vato”

I didn’t know I was so Latino
Until I cut my finger on a page
Of William Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico
Roasted pepper blood splattered cloistered walls
Tagging “Somos Latinos” like in the barrio
Mama’s salsa gushing as I strolled
Cool like a Stacey Adams wearing pachuco
Down corridors muffled snickers crept past
An alumn who took out a razor blade and sliced
Her snowy white pretentious ass
Bleeding blue rivers that mocked and swallowed
My earthy crimson blood reeking of cilantro

I didn’t know I was so Latino
Until I realized strolling Romanesque paths
As a morning’s chill wind blew across campus
Past Ivy league senator’s sons cheeks flushed
The only men that looked like me
Pablo Hernando Garcia with mustache trimming the tree
“Buenos Dias” we exchange
Both smelling like chorizo and eggs