Estela Undrowning – Rene Pena – Govea

Chester nods once and Marisa and I follow suit. “Great,” Ms. Álvarez says briskly. “Estela, stay back a second.” I hang back, wringing my hands together. Chester yanks the door open and Marisa follows him. “Estela, how are you?” Ms. Álvarez peers into my eyes. “Fine.” “After . . . the article?” Ms. Álvarez drops off, waiting for me to speak.

I exhale. “I mean, not that great. I still feel like I’m not exactly wanted at this school, but I’m ready to just do my work, get my college apps in. . . .” Ms. Álvarez pauses a beat, then asks, “Have you heard about the meeting in my room today?” “Yadira’s meeting?” I ask. “Well, Yadira is facilitating,” Ms. Álvarez says, “but it’s not her meeting. It’s supposed to be a space for students to share their experiences with racism at this school, some of which may resonate with you.”

“Oh, I’m—I’m fine,” I say, and notice that Ms. Álvarez looks disappointed. “Are you sure?” she insists. “You’ve just had this big honor, but also all this attention and controversy that you did nothing to deserve.” “I thought you didn’t want us to talk about the controversy,” I say. I don’t know why I’m fighting Ms. Álvarez.

I know she’s on my side, but I really don’t want to go to that meeting. It’s not my responsibility to solve all the racism at this school. I don’t want to bring more attention to the poetry contest—it’s embarrassing. And I have more important things to worry about. The eviction. Spanish. “Fighting in class and discussing it with others in a supportive environment are two different things,” Ms. Álvarez says tiredly. “Did you get in trouble for giving that interview?” Ms. Álvarez looks taken aback. “With the reporter?

No, I just took a personal day,” she says.

el camino y nada más; are the only path, nothing else. caminante, no hay camino, Traveler, there is no path, se hace camino al andar. you make your own path by walking. Al andar se hace camino, As you walk, you make your path y al volver la vista atrás and as you return your gaze behind, se ve la senda que nunca you see the trail that se ha de volver a pisar.

you will never travel again. Caminante, no hay camino, Traveler, there is no path sino estelas en la mar. only ships’ wakes on the sea. —Antonio Machado, Proverbios y cantares, “XXIX” Desahogar, a direct translation says to vent, but the literal meaning is to undrown [ .

. . ] Letting go of secrets and burdens, unraveling our papelitos guardados [ . . . ] May we no longer drown from the memories of pain left unsaid. —David Luis Glisch-Sánchez and Nic Rodríguez-Villafañe, Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice OceanofPDF.com One Monday, August 19 You can’t stay here, you don’t belong, you have to get out, says the letter in the envelope. Of course, I can’t know for sure, because I didn’t actually read it.

After I slid the envelope under my parents’ bedroom door, I had four minutes to run for this bus, which now sails across 19th Avenue straight into a fog bank. My best friend, Jeli, leans into the aisle to push the stop request button and I realize that I’ve made a mistake. Yes, it’s the first day of senior year, and no, I can’t be late. Still, I should have opened the letter.

I could have made a plan. Instead, my mind skitters between words, appraising them. My fingers itch for my notebook, primed to purge this feeling. Words to Describe Our Possible Fate Destitution, ruination, defenestration, and the most precise: eviction. But the hypothetical words I imagine in the letter win; they pound in my chest: GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: bd0d460bdb011867
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,100,966 bytes (2.957 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 280
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 429.68 minutes
• Total Words: 85,936
• Total Characters: 472,614
• Average Words per Page: 306.91
• Average Characters per Page: 1687.91

Most Frequent Words

like (609), says (582), jeli (452), know (401), i’m (396), say (378), it’s (368), don’t (321), chloe (254), rogelio (252), even (228), back (202), school (196), want (188), get (186), see (170), think (170), one (169), mami (164), now (153), feel (146), he’s (144), didn’t (142), spanish (137), she’s (135), chester (135), time (134), eyes (132), people (130), still (123), right (123), papi (122), ask (120), need (120), look (119), can’t (118), madison (118), doesn’t (117), parents (115), head (112), looks (110), maybe (110), make (109), take (109), something (109), well (109), way (108), asks (107), first (106), álvarez (104), good (101), tell (101), hands (98), hand (97), we’re (96), you’re (95), estela (92), really (91), leti (91), day (90), i’ll (90), myself (89), away (88), though (88), that’s (88), going (88), mean (87), yeah (87), they’re (86), never (84), class (84), face (83), around (83), friends (82), always (81), also (81), anything (80), poem (80), i’ve (79), against (76), black (76), izumi (76), students (75), college (75), phone (73), come (73), jeli’s (71), gonna (70), toward (69), door (68), trying (68), work (68), taeja (67), someone (66), talk (65), home (65), words (64), sure (63), side (62), let (61).

PDF Download