“To love a country as if you’ve lost one: as if it were you on a plane departing from America forever, clouds closing like curtains on your country, the last scene in which you’re a madman scribbling the names of your favorite flowers, trees, and birds you’d never see again, your address and phone number you’d never use again, the color of your father’s eyes, your mother’s hair, terrified you could forget these. To love a country as if I was my mother last spring hobbling, insisting I help her climb all the way up to the U.S. Capitol, as if she were here before you today instead of me, explaining her tears, cheeks pink as the cherry blossoms coloring the air that day when she stopped, turned to me, and said: You know, mijo, it isn’t where you’re born that matters, it’s where you choose to die—that’s your country.” HomeAmericaPoetryUnited StatesPoemImmigrationImmigrantsCountriesEmigration Book:How to Love a Country Source: How to Love a Country
“These contrasts were also meant to reflect the essential beauty and constant struggle of our democracy as expressed in our nation’s motto: e pluribus unum (out of many, one). We are a populace of individual “I’s” who have consented to come together as a “we.” The challenge has been to continuously question who is (or isn’t) included in that “we” and how to redefine and reimagine it. Overall, we’ve managed to move toward a more inclusive understanding of ourselves and acceptance of each another. Historically, though, we have wavered and are currently at a crossroads: Are we going to advance toward a broader definition of “we” or will we retreat to a narrower one?” AmericaUnited StatesDemocracyAcceptanceInclusionStruggles Book:How to Love a Country Source: How to Love a Country
“Como tú, I woke up to this dream of a country I didn't choose, that didn't choose me--trapped in the nightmare of its hateful glares.” AmericaPoetryUnited StatesPoemHatredUsaUnited States Of AmericaUsDreamersDaca Book:How to Love a Country Source: How to Love a Country
“Then countries—your invention—maps jigsawing the world into colored shapes caged in bold lines to say: you’re here, not there, you’re this, not that, to say: yellow isn’t red, red isn’t black, black is not white, to say: mine, not ours, to say war, and believe life’s worth is relative.” United StatesSeparationBordersMexicoCountriesRio GrandeRio Grande River Book:How to Love a Country Source: How to Love a Country
