THE ‘X’ IN ‘XICANO’ SPEAKS
"The term Chicano is derived from the word Mejicano or Mexican, which itself is rooted in the word Mexicano (with the “x” pronounced as “ch”) within the Nahuatl language from which it stems. Mexicano was thus in reference to the Mexica, or Aztecs as later called by the Spanish colonists, and was derived from the union of four terms: meztli (moon), xictli (bellybutton), coyotl (offspring, child of), noxt (yes). Although translations rarely do justice to actual meanings of words, it is from these root words that Mexica translates roughly to ‘children from the bellybutton of the moon’. Likewise, Xicano, from its Nahuatl base can be taken to mean an affirmation ‘Yes! I am the child of the bellybutton/earth’."
Robert Hernandez, Running for Peace and Dignity
When I am unveiled
this time, I dazzle
the mouth. Crown the tongue.
Cradle the sob of waterfalls &
summon every child. Ven
aquí, todos. Escuchame,
finally. Pull me from
the deadest root & watch
it ripen in the good air.
Blessings to all parts of earth
whom are forgotten. Blessings
to the splintered leaves, the dark
stars, the sunken branch. Here
is the calling forth, the new
beginning. Yes, I am old
& debuting fresh wind; yes,
I am young with the pulse
of raucous citizens -
recycled poem, shred of
warrior past - I am the hollered
rush of the Rio Grande, the
feet caught between two
lands. I am the omitted
passage; the forbidden water,
the hieroglyph, the non-border.
Walk me along your name until
I become you, niño de los indios,
de los árboles, del cielo. Yo olvido
nada. & my memory is yours, too.
A ver. Tus manos son los mismos
a miyo. I am closer to you than
even death. Mirame, resurrected
in Coyolxauhqui’s fractured pieces.
I measure the length of legends.
I swim with ancient grace.
I am a red string around
the ankle of history,
holding together my children
in my splendid mouth.
THE ‘X’ IN ‘LATINX’ SPEAKS
All language is made
up. The "x" makes Latino,
a masculine identifier,
gender-neutral. Remember
the first time a man claimed
possession of a thing? No?
I suppose none of us do &
since no one can recall
what made the first man’s
eye shine & his sweat
glow like a grown demon
& his fingers’ bright pulse
thump and coil around
a flag or a woman or name -
that moment;
that’s why you need me.
I also move[sic] beyond
Latin@ - which has been
used in the past to include
both masculine and feminine
identities - to encompass
genders outside of that limiting
man-woman binary. Let me
loose so the bodies tangled
in men’s old words & worlds
can sway. I cost only practice,
a small life on the tongue,
rolled around the mouth
in praise & patience. Don’t
all defiant bodies deserve
their own victory? Or don’t
you remember the river,
what it feels like to be
a ghost? Latinx, pronounced
"La-teen-ex," includes
the numerous people of Latin
American descent whose gender
identities fluctuate along
different points of the spectrum,
from agender or nonbinary to
gender non-conforming, genderqueer
and genderfluid.¹ All exclusions
are crafted by men, sometimes
white and straight and
cisgender and able-bodied
and Christian and rich
and for once, I’m
saying the silver
& gold lining these
privileges will sometimes
return to their homes,
cut tiny fractures
in the thief’s hands,
insist on the truth.
& though you’ve
made an identity
of stealing
other people’s things,
here’s the thing -
you cannot morph
a body into something
it is not, can’t magick
a man into a saint or
a soul into a colony.
what concern of yours
are the mathematics
of another human’s
gender? lay down your
measuring tools. grasp
instead the letter ‘x’,
my name, gift
from the survivors,
marrow of the new
community which
has always existed
& will answer only
to its true & chosen
name.
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¹excerpted from “Why We Say Latinx: Trans & Gender Non-Conforming People Explain” by Raquel Reichard for Latina magazine
Ariana Brown is an Afromexicana poet from San Antonio, Texas, with a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies. She is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize, a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion, and is currently working on her first manuscript. Ariana is earning an MFA in Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh.