content warning for racism and racial slurs
Don’t Know Nobody from Ellis Island
Black slaves first arrived in Mexico in 1519 as part of the Panfilo Narvaez expedition. It is uncertain whether they assisted Hernan Cortes in the conquest of the Aztec Empire. We do know hat Esteban, one of the slaves introduced by Narvaez, participated in the first expedition to set foot in Texas.
—Martha Menchaca, Recovering History, Constructing Race
i had a friend named guillermo
in elementary & for three years
our teacher decided i was his tutor
dark sea-washed temple of bronze
his name with two most difficult
letters guillermo’s hair a torch
thick & going straight up i never
thought guillermo could be my
brother, my interest when i say
‘friend’ i mean he was someone
who sat next to me in class
bothered my conversations no
context for showing up i mean
it’s a miracle i remembered
his name & guillermo was
the darkest mexican i’d ever met
& my exiled hair was a harbor
we both could have moored in
& i did not know how to lift my
silent lip & smile. i only knew he
was annoying & i memorized the
lightning color of jacob’s hair
instead jacob with the thin lip &
small ankles i did not see esteban
prince of conquest pouring sand
into my blood esteban who survived
the ocean twice & left behind no
images of himself instead gave
the spaniards a key to the world
above the river & this crossing
is where i begin. were your grand
parents immigrants did they read
the signs no niggers mexicans or
dogs allowed were they assumed
to be rich were they rich did they
own themselves did they have to
work for their freedom
& the ancient lands our feet kissed
with blood call us back to the soil
saying, remember. & i know now
the statute of liberty which embraced
the necks of esteban’s skinfolk &
draped the bodies of his descendants
across huizaches in texas & esteban
did not live long enough to have children
& the soil swallows so many bodies
& myself and guillermo spoke as little
as possible suffice it to say we have
a history & our teachers said guillermo’s
name like the name of an exile
Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American writer based in Houston, TX. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020), a national collegiate poetry slam champion, and the winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for fifteen years.
