Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012

Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas San Diego, Ca. March 2012
Eddie Arana, Rick Thibodeau, & Chris Bakunas at Luche Libre Taco Shop in San Diego, March 2012

Friday, July 4, 2014

Thoughts On The Fourth Of July


I did not have to take any extraordinary risks
To get here
Didn't have to make my way 
Across a temperamental ocean 
Crammed aboard an overloaded boat 
Full of people leaving behind 
Everything they had ever known
Family
Friends 
Common language
Common culture
Didn't have to pay some stranger 
To stow me away in a truck full of people 
Packed in like sardines 
All hoping to make it across the border undiscovered
Alive
 And with at least a chance of blending in with others like me
Didn't have to forge papers or identification
 Didn't have to steal an identity
Didn't have to live in fear of being taken back 
To the homeland I fled
All of  that was taken care of by my ancestors
 The people I never knew from whom I am descended
They risked their very lives on a chance 
That life here would be better than it was there
 That here there would be opportunities 
Opportunities to work
To learn
To become something more 
To make something more
 For themselves and for their children 
And their children's children.

I'm just a descendant of very brave
 Very strong 
Very determined 
People 

And for that I am grateful

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