Eloisa Perez-Lozano

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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.