El Nogalar Study Guide (9MB) - Goodman Theatre
El Nogalar Study Guide (9MB) - Goodman Theatre
El Nogalar Study Guide (9MB) - Goodman Theatre
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one body found in the middle of the street<br />
in a neighborhood not unlike mine<br />
on this side of the line<br />
I am alive<br />
and my rather reclines<br />
in his retired military easy-chair bliss<br />
of Ft.Bliss<br />
Mom and Dad warn to be careful<br />
but aren’t overly concerned<br />
when my brothers and I<br />
cross from <strong>El</strong> Paso to Juárez<br />
for late-night cheap college drink-a-thons<br />
as long as we stay on the touristy paths<br />
that may exploit<br />
but do protect Americans and our American dreams<br />
we are different<br />
and even my parents don’t seem to see<br />
all those missing women<br />
they all look like me<br />
but I am told I am different<br />
less Mexican<br />
less poor<br />
American thus worth more<br />
different<br />
similarities<br />
they all worked like I do<br />
so many last seen<br />
going to or coming from work<br />
at U.S. corporate-owned maquiladoras<br />
but I’m told this isn’t an American issues<br />
and I’m lucky I’m here on the safe side<br />
safe<br />
yet not quite out of earshot of distant cried<br />
of families searching ditches and roadsides<br />
bearing snapshot after snapshot<br />
of my brown eyes<br />
Have you seen this girl?<br />
She is my sister<br />
La has visto?<br />
Es mi niña<br />
my baby<br />
mi hermana<br />
my wife<br />
Have you seen her?<br />
This face? Esta cara?<br />
When you fit the profile of a predator’s prey<br />
you can’t help but take the crimes personally<br />
I am a symbol of those who survive<br />
mouth open in defiance of their silence<br />
spared by a line in the sand<br />
drawn between their grandfather<br />
and mine<br />
and if that line had fallen closer to home<br />
somewhere between you and I<br />
who would I be?<br />
what would my worth be then?<br />
and if silenced who would speak for me?<br />
Amalia Ortiz grew up on the border and is now a performance poet,<br />
actor, director, and activist in San Antonio. She has performed<br />
throughout the United States and on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Ortiz also<br />
teaches workshops in elementary schools. “The Women of Juárez ,”<br />
is reprinted from “The Lines Between Us: Teaching About the Border<br />
and Mexican Immigration,” with permission from Rethinking Schools,<br />
Ltd.<br />
Pink crosses in Olvera street, Los Angeles, as remembrance for the murdered women of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on the Day of the Dead, 2005.<br />
Photo courtesy of Jim Winstead<br />
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3/25/2011 4:05:41 PM
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