BIO
Eloísa Pérez-Lozano grew up bilingual and bicultural in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Iowa State University with her M.S. in journalism and mass communication and her B.S. in psychology. She was selected to be a Juried Poet during the 2014 Houston Poetry Fest and her poetry has been featured in The Bayou Review, Illya’s Honey, The Acentos Review, the Johnson County Library’s 2014 Poem-a-Day Program, the 2014 Houston Poetry Fest Anthology, the Degenerates: Voices for Peace Anthology, and one of her poems will be published internationally by The Ofi Press in December 2014.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eloisa-Ana-Poet-and-Photographer/130569953630815?ref=hl
Twitter: @elopoeta
Line on a Map
Honeymoon over
Ready for home
I step up to the counter
Her brown eyes meet mine
Then scan the rest of me
From behind her desk.
Mexicana o Americana? she asks.
Soy mexicana, I respond with a smile
Proclaiming in perfect Spanish
The words infused with child-like pride.
I hand her my passport
Her jet-black brow raises a question
En donde naciste? she probes
I know the destination but
I don’t want to take this trip with her.
Are we there yet?
Tostadas de pollo
Y sopa de fideo en casa
Alongside mashed potatoes
And chicken fried steak at school.
But it all comes down to a line on a map
Los Estados Unidos, I mumble
Eres Americana, she states matter of factly
Her ink stamp comes down on my passport
Leaving no room for discussion.
But I’m not just that!
She is already waving over
The next person
A blond, blue-eyed woman
It is her turn to accept the label I cannot.