“Ticket to Ride/Write: Writing the Personal Statement”
By Cathy Arellano, SAGE English Instructor
I Come From by Cathy Arellano
I come from See’s candy factory workers,
Housekeeping Department employees
who clean toilets and make beds for other people
I come from house painters and furniture movers
I come from Nana’s rice and beans
and balls of manteca and flour
rolled out with plain wood, no handles
then placed on a hot comal
Hot tortillas folded like a V
dripping with butter
I come from Pepsi in little kids’ bottles
babies whose first words are
“TV Guide, TV Guide, TV Guide”
I come from adults who don’t ask children
But tell them
Get up
Go to the store
Now
I come from Mission Street,
16th, 24th, Army, Potrero, Guereero
18th, 20th, Folsom, and South Van Ness
I come form Whiz Burgers and Jets
Toto’s Pizza and Chat n Chew
Chili Bowl, Carl’s Bakery, Dianda’s Italian-American
I come from panaderías and taquerías
before they were famous or trendy
I come from Bell Bazaar, Latin Freeze, the New Mission, Granada
Música Latina when it was still called American Music Store
and they sold 45s in little sleeves
I come from Sanchez Elementary where we painted a mural,
Hawthorne before it was renamed Cesar Chavez,
I come from three-story Everett Junior High
That became a middle school
I come from five decades of graduates
in frames on Mission High walls
and five generations of missing faces from these same frames
I come from Stevie Wonder,
Diana Ross and the Supremes
Santana, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra
Javier Solis, Vicente Fernandez, and Juan Gabriel
Toña la Negra and Amalia Mendoza
I come from mariachis loud
on Saturday mornings
Aretha Franklin and Flor Silvestre
low on Sunday evenings
I come from “Oh My Angel” and “Sombras”
“Black Magic Woman” and Jimi’s “Hey Joe”
“What’s Going On?” and
“If We’re Not Back in Love By Monday”
I come from Lucky Pork pork
cut all day on New Year’s Eve
meat put into molé
and chicharrones fried
I come from Nana mixing pale masa
with her brown hands
then aunties spreading it
on tubfuls of ojas that have soaked for hours
I come from counting down
with Dick Clark’s Rockin Eve
3, 2, 1!
the whole family crying
then confetti falling in beer cans
I come from Auntie Dizzy’s
open door policy
Cousins who are like brothers and sisters
Uncle Tommy’s jokes
And Auntie Rita’s tricks
I come from Dolores Park and
Mission Playground
I come from cheering on the Giants and 49ers
and watching our teams lose
game after game
year after year
until they make us start to believe
maybe we’re not losers after all.