Daughters Of Simone

My great grandmother washed dishes and made tortillas in Mexican restaurants, she was all of 8 when she came here. Escaping war with her mother.
“They walked”
“From the middle of Mexico?”
“They walked”
They didn’t take a train or..horse”
“Didn’t have anything”
Her son picked grapes at 8, right here in our Central Valley
He went on to become elected student president of Rosevelt High School and the first in his family to graduate from college, Fresno state
He ran a successful insurance business and died in a big house surrounded by all of his grandchildren
I am constantly pledged by my families history
Reminded of how I ended up here
Reminded that my papers are fragile
And are only solid because of their determination and keeping their heads down
My grandpa use to say he liked when his (white) neighbors would mistake him for the gardener
I often wonder what is was like for his to have blonde grandchildren who thought they were Spanish or Itanian or something
I miss his fickles to the back of my ear
A loving gesture he would smile and reserve for us
He didn’t talk about all that that much
Maybe he wanted to set himself apart from it
Blend in
Be known for himself
But now I can see that it weighed on him
I wish I could ask him more questions

—3rd generation Mexican American