Identity

David Tenorio is a young poet originally from Mexico City who has worked in Canada for the last three years in the fields of immigration, translation and social assistance. Some of his poems have been read at the Cultural Celebration of the Spanish Language, a conference organized annually by Professor Margarita Feliciano of York University. Currently, David is studying his bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Studies, translation and psychology at Glendon College, the bilingual campus of York University, Toronto.

My life is not a work of fate,
but a philosophy, an expression of art.
Oak woodwork carved with grace,
as rare and exotic as a stone from Mars.

I represent my inner self, my origin
which is forged in the turquoise skies,
in the white storms that blast away
the harsh red from before our eyes.

I symbolize the Anglo-Saxon Imperialism
that rips to shreds my Latin flag,
that replaces nopals with NAFTAism.
What a great idea that Darwin had!

With blanched sadness, I lament that my world
evanesces in the great neo-liberal mist;
yet still I have hope, for in the depth of my soul,
is the insignia of my language of amethyst.

Translated by Martin Boyd