To my father
It's March, and this blog is going to be dedicated to my father.
A man that holds a strong hold on my heart.
So in order for you to understand this whole dedication you guys need a little back story and history on this man.
He was born in Michoacan, Mexico and didn't come to the USA till he was 7 years old.
He is the oldest of 7 children. There are a total of (5) boys and (2) girls. My grandpa, was always working and out of the house so at a very young age, my father was in charge of helping his mother raise the other kids. They didn't grow up with a lot of money. I have heard countless stories about the little they had and the hilarious things all the boys got into. They were to say the least mischievous rascals.
As my father grew up, he grew up with the ideas that women belong in the kitchen, he was very misogynistic in his thought process and with his sisters. All of his brothers were. He was a "macho man/man's man". When he became a father, he became a father to (3) girls.
That's when he said he had to change the way he thought, he didn't want his daughters to be subjected to the way he treated his sisters or other women. He would always tell my sisters and I that we were a minority on two accounts, (1) we are Mexican and (2) we are female. That we had to work twice as hard and be twice as strong. I didn't understand much of what he meant growing up but as I have gotten older, as I have seen my sisters grow, he was preparing us to be strong within ourselves for whatever was to unfold in our lives.
My sisters and I grew up in a nice neighborhood and and went to private schools from kindergarten all the way up till we graduated from high school. My father went from nothing to being able to provide for his family with hard work and dedication. He has always had a relentless work ethic and to me, he is the embodiment of the American Dream.
I recently was speaking with my parents and asked them this simple question:
"Are you a feminist? "
My mother's response was, "NO!"
My father's response was, "Yes! (with a thumbs up)"
It's funny how both my parents are so different and have influenced my sisters and I in our own ways as we have grown up. If you know the three of us, you can see we all have similar foundations in thoughts and convictions but we live our lives in different ways.
So this is blog is to the biggest feminist I know. This is for my father.
He and my mother have raised (3) stubborn, strong willed females.
They have raised us to be proud of being women and being Mexican.
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Thank you
history
His-story
is your story
it became my story
which i pass it along to make Her-story
we embody with planting all those before
the present is our growing roots
preparing for others to sprout after
look not onto me for i am just a bridge
between generations of greatness
my setbacks are the pushing points for you
to jump beyond galaxies of dreams
he is the founding father
his wet back is more than sweat
it's the tears he's never shed
years of hard work it is the weight
of our worlds that he has carried
Atlas wills the burden of one world
yet you carry the worlds of your
mother, father, siblings, wife,
daughters and your daughters daughter
you believe in a woman's strength
that our gift of creation is the future
Her-story
was formed from my story
which was founded by your story
His-story
History
#thankful #love #poetryprompt #poetrycommunity #poems #poem #strength #poetry #creativewriting #prayer #blog #reading #poet #happiness #faith #father #feminism