The Generation Gap

“You won’t have enough time for that.”

I sat across from my high school principal as she turned down my plan to give my graduation speech in English and Spanish. I couldn’t really fight back in the moment, thinking the time limit was very strict. I had a backup plan but was still unhappy that I couldn’t give my speech the way I had wanted to.

Guests in Our Country

“Uno siempre anhela tener una sala bonita con un comedor bonito y, pues, no. Tampoco se arriesga uno a comprar una sala bonita porque de pronto hoy estamos aquí y mañana no.”

'White Enough'

“You’re just white enough. That’s why I like you,” he said through a toothy smile.

My white then-boyfriend joked as I sat next to him in the car. I had been telling him about a meeting I had gone to earlier that day. A group of black students had been joking about the lack of seasoning in white food and had turned to me to say, “No offense.”

Undocumented, Woman, and Brown

This piece began from a poem. Written in a crowded Peter Pan bus as I read Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers.” She motivated me to not hold back on my writing. She pushed me to “write with [my] tongue of fire.” So that is what I am doing.

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438: The Countdown to Falling Out of Status

As I am beginning writing this, I have 445 days left until my DACA expires. 445 days left to be able to work in the United States. 445 days left of protection from deportation—although that is not guaranteed either.

The thing that bothers me about this number is that it doesn’t seem that bad at first. I have over a year left. A lot can happen in that time. But that’s exactly it: A lot can change. Each day that passes, 122 DACA recipients lose their status. My deadline is just a bit farther away. Right now, my DACA is set to expire as I take my finals next year. It will last me through my first three years at Harvard. But it is set to expire before I graduate. A lot can happen in that time. Graduation is not guaranteed. Permission to work after college is not guaranteed.