⬛ An interview with Cristina Beltrán on what unites and divides Latinos
⬛ A short story by Tanya Rey
⬛ Essays by Robert Lopez, Joe Wilkins, and Vincent Mowrey
⬛ Poems by Brionne Janae and Alison Luterman
⬛ A photo essay on “When Living Is A Protest”
⬛ Readers Write on “My Country”

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"In this time of isolation, we want to share stories about what connects us, the challenges we face, and the moments when we rise to meet them."

THE SUN INTERVIEW

I wish the Democratic Party would put more resources into these communities instead of waiting until shortly before an election and parachuting in a few campaign workers to do some half-assed Latino-turnout work. Latinos are not automatically the firewall for the Democratic Party.
— Cristina Beltrán on what unites and divides Latinos

Many Voices
By Mark Leviton

ESSAYS, MEMOIRS, AND TRUE STORIES

I can say I’m Puerto Rican, and no one can refute that, but I don’t know what it’s like to feel Puerto Rican. I don’t know what it’s like to see the flag of Puerto Rico and feel something that resembles pride.

What Might Have Been Lost
By Robert Lopez

I pretended to be busy on my computer until she leaned so close to me I had to sit back and look up. She had my attention now. She smiled with one side of her mouth. “That was my mom,” she said. “Fucking Wicked Witch of the West.”

A Terrible Wind
By Joe Wilkins

The scar in the turf in front of her headstone has long since healed. Her death date was blank at her funeral, reflecting our disbelief. It now reads, Sept. 11, 2010. Beside that is another blank for my father.

Sitting On My Mother
By Vincent Mowrey

PHOTO ESSAY

My work is an attempt to show what it means to live in the struggle in places like South Carolina and Mississippi, and to document protests from Ferguson, Missouri, to New York City. I want to show the faces of those whose lives are spent in protest.

When Living Is A Protest
By Ruddy Roye

FICTION

You can hardly remember now how you would pull out the ribbons she weaved through your hair, launching them into the wind as you pedaled faster on your bike. You have left that girl behind. You believe in the power of ribbons and roses now. You are a woman.

Blooming
By Tanya Rey

POETRY

Love Poem
By Brionne Janae
we are dying they say
faster than others
you can list all of the reasons for this
systemic and ancient as a noose
Braiding His Hair

By Alison Luterman
head bowed while I braid,
as if he were the daughter I never had
and this my one chance
to weave my care into each over, under,
over, under

READERS WRITE

Personal stories by our readers
Claiming a heritage
Becoming a citizen
Landing in a foreign jail

My Country

THE DOG-EARED PAGE

Stride from the crowd to seize the president’s arm before another roll of paper towels sails away. Thunder Spanish obscenities in his face. Banish him to a roofless rainstorm in Utuado, so he unravels, one soaked sheet after another, till there is nothing left but his cardboard heart.
Letter To My Father
By Martín Espada

DEPARTMENTS

Correspondence
Letters to the editor
I have suddenly become an enthusiastic supporter of Sparrow and his Dadaesque campaign for president. Finally — someone to vote for!
Rick Marting
Twin Bridges, Montana

One Nation, Indivisible
Political excerpts from our archives
Featuring Luis Rodríguez, Tram Nguyen, Rochelle Smith, and more.

Sunbeams
There’s not a thing wrong with the ideals and mechanisms outlined and the liberties set forth in the Constitution of the United States. The only problem was the founders left a lot of people out of the Constitution. They left out poor people and Black people and female people. It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America. And it still goes on today.
— Molly Ivins

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