April is National Poetry Month and Lake Effect has been highlight local poets like Carmen Murguia. She shared her story of discovering her sexuality as a Mexican woman in Milwaukee in the book Latina Lives in Milwaukee by Theresa Delgadillo.
Here is an excerpt:
"I realized that I was a girl, and what that meant was that you're second-class, you're not as good as the boys. It also meant that there are other rules and regulations about being a girl. I also realized that I was Mexican, because that was really evident going to a private Catholic school where all the teachers were white, and most students were Polish or German, with some Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. It really stood out to me that I was from a working-class, Mexican family.
The third thing that I realized as a young girl was that I liked girls! [laughs] I remember one day we were on break - we must've been out on the playground, and I was seven, and I remember going to the church, which was open. It must have been around noon or something. I walked into the church and I went to the front pew because I wanted to be as close to God and as close to Our Lady of Guadalupe as possible. I remember saying to them, "Okay, so you made me a girl and you know that's going to be tough, and you made me Mexican, and you know that's going to be tough, but you also made me like girls. So you better protect me. Amen!" I recognized as a child that I had a tough road ahead of me. [laughs] Then I just crossed myself, blessed myself, and I said, "So just please protect me." That was it. I knew. I had such insight as a little girl, perhaps in part because I was raised in a civil rights family."
Murguia will be sharing more of her work at an event on Saturday, April 30, at Outwords Books, Gifts & Coffee.
