OYE GRINGITO
Ángela Victoria Manzanares

 

     
 

 

OYE GRINGITO--Do you wanna know why I don't date white boys? You think you're sooooo cool. Tall, blue eyes, white skin, blond hair. You dress right, you talk tight, you have an ED-U-CA-TION, and your mama wears diamond rings on her fingers, and has gold caps in her teeth.

OYE GRINGITO--Little white boy, you act soooo confident with the little white girls: frat pin, new car, business major and your daddy's Gold Card. What more do you need to impress a Barbie Doll Girl and the rest of the world?

OYE GRINGITO--Do you wanna know why I don't date white boys? I don't talk correct English. I won't kiss your ass. I shop at K-Mart and listen to corridos and Latin jazz. My ma don't wear diamonds--she buys prayer candles and groceries instead. I don't care about Gold Cards--I want bronze skin, bronze men. You can't see my beauty through my brown skin and brown ways. You see just a night of hot screwing with a dumb-ass Spic babe.

OYE GRINGITO--white boy--I'll tell you why I DON'T DATE WHITE BOYS. You don't speak my language, I don't trust your ways. You wanna know me--taste me? Don't show me your plastic--I won't be bought. Show me bronze lust, not white-washed mind games. Don't speak 'English Only' and change your name to MARTINEZ.

OYE GRINGITO--no se puede.

 
     

 

 

 

"Oye Gringito" © 1990, 1995 by Ángela Victoria Manzanares
 
     
 

Original Photograph © 1995 by Cynthia Martinez
 

 

 

 Next Work


Poetry Contents Page | Journal Contents Page
 
     
 

standards@colorado.edu


About Standards