Freeway by Lorna Dee Cervantes

"Las casitas near the gray cannery,
nestled amid wild abrazos of climbing roses
and man-high red geraniums
are gone now. The feeway conceals it
all beneath a raised scar.

But under the fake windsounds of the open lanes,
in the abandoned lots below, new grasses sprout,
wild mustard remembers, old gardens
come back stronger than they were,
trees have been left standing in their yards.
Albaricoqueros, cerezos, nogales...
Viejitas comes here with paper bags to gather greens.
Espinaca, verdolagas, yerbabuena...

I scramble over the wire fence
that would have kept me out.
Once, I wanted out, wanted the rigid lanes
to take me to a place without sun,
without the smell of tomatoes burning
on swing shift in the greasy summer air.

Maybe it's here
en los campos extranos de esta ciudad
where I'll find it, that part of me
mown under
like a corpse or a loose seed."

Translations:

Las casitas - the small houses
Abrazos - hugs
Albaricoqueros - apricot trees
Cerezos - cherry trees
Nogales - walnut trees
Viejitas - old women
Espinaca - spinach
Verdolagas - purslane
Yerbabuena -ment
"en los campos extranos de esta ciudad" - in the strange fields of this city. 

Actual Highway 280 runs through the Bay Area in California (San Francisco to San Jose)

Rationale for piece: I chose this piece because I felt that it would be a good opportunity to discuss different heritages. The immersion of a different language gives the student an opportunity to see a tension between two worlds. I would like to do an activity about the different worlds all students live in. Every student can find two separate worlds they belong to, and talk about how they feel when those two worlds start to collide. For me, I feel tension when my ballet world and normal world collide. I am used to seeing the same dancers every week, but if I ever see them up on campus I feel like someone has invaded my world. I think that students would be able to easily make connections like this. The enhancements I feel necessary for this piece are the translations for the poem. Not all students speak Spanish and so it has to be able to be easily readable for the students. It also would be fun to be able to have any Spanish speakers in the class read it/give the translations. I also think it is important to have a visual of who is writing the poem, it allows the students to better connect with the poem and the author.  I also added the pictures of the actual Freeway talked about in the poem, so that students can actually see the place students were talking about.