Corazon Entre Dos Tierras, 2024.
Acrylic on canvas. Purchase

—

Art by Jacqueline Almaguer
Poem by Alanis Castillo Caref

—

How do you say, not single, not taken, not a box, or a paper

In our countries
they hate to see us loving.

First time I saw you
against the bed
of a motel hell- room,

hair a mess,
the devil herself
giving you head,
you
touching my legs
and kissing me on the face,
little horns growing from our foreheads,
was heaven.

Our love is made up of night
creatures
and bodies
with fingers
in me
dripping,
hearts too big for two people,
refusing to shrink ourselves
for something so un-cosmic and human,
we make ourselves big.

Millions of miles away,
falling asleep on facetime,
you WhatsApp text me,

how was your day?
I ask you
who is she
out of curiosity
and fighting every bit of jealousy,
speaking
in amor/es like a name,
and fucks-shit,
no mames
calling you bitch, but really
“just playing, baby.”

Giving polyams
polly pockets playing house
a new meaning.

They’d tell us God says
we are only good for sex
when we become
baby-producer breeders and
money-makers
for them,
our countries
don’t give a fuck about love.

I say,
trying to hide behind
the labels on your passport,
how do you say
the marriage is not a scam,
with a black ink pen,
in a box you check,
a piece of papel
that is green
or a visa that you need
so they don’t slaughter you like butcher meat
hanging
in this country.

This country,
this earth,
keep telling me,

la migra will know
if you’ve fucked someone else.

They can smell it.

Calling us
cochinos,
cochinos,
if you were a woman,
a muchachita,
una chica,
we’d be fine.

Not to marry us feels like a hate crime.

¿And how do you say,
mamacita, mi vida, traviesa, chingar
mi cielo, perreo, culona, chichona,
chulita, mamón, cabrón, pendeja,
bebecita, maricón, frikitona, coger,
sin madre sin padre sin perro que me ladre,
ya está, ya está, ya está,
en inglés?

We speak a different language,
but our tongue is the same;
when we say “I love you,”
it is more than a phrase.

¿How do you say
how do you say
how do you say,
amar?

—

Alanis Zoë Castillo Caref is a writer-poet activist-artist from Chicago. She received her BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Communication and Creative Writing. Alanis was a finalist for the 2021 Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards and won second place in The Hip Hop Workshop 2022 Spoken-Word Competition. She also has poetry published in The Fashion Network magazine. Alanis has performed at Story Lab Chicago, Do Not Submit, Slam Diáspora, Exhibit B, The Chicago Poetry Center, and La Hora de Antojitos. Currently, she is the Marketing Coordinator at Guild Literary Complex and a co-curator of Exhibit B.

Jaqui Almaguer is a self-taught Queer Chicana artist. Born in Chicago and raised Chicago, Southern California and Nashville. Her Mexican upbringing and travels, throughout Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica, have greatly influenced her work. Almaguer is greatly inspired by the bold imagery, bright colors and playfulness of her Mexican culture and is interested in exploring new techniques and styles of painting and different creative processes.

—

1000 Words | Home Not Home Artists + Writers

Noa Alemán + Tamar Brooks • Jacqueline Almaguer + Alanis Castillo Caref • Lexi Alvarado + Isabela Ortega • Danielle Arend + Janina Gatilao • Sofia Brunwin + Spencer Hutchinson • Andrea Cole + Rocio Franco • Lydia Collins + Tarnynon Onumonu • Gregory Diaz + Irvin Ibarra • Danielle Dykerhouse + Betsy Van Die • Jonathan Espinoza + ben-aki • Jaymes Fedor + Maria Requena • Samantha Franco + Angeles Rangel • Ines Gardea + Angelica Davila • Frank Geiser + Penny Mann • Evelyn Hernandez + Valeria Osornio • Stephanie Hererra + Neha Chawla • Ivana Jarmon + Theo Sullivan • Vivian Jones + Luz Silva • Lewis Lain + Thulasi Seshan • Cesar Luna + benedicta m badia • Marie Magnetic + Jasmine Rodriguez • Delisha Mckinney + Paloma Velasco • Diana Noh + Juj-Lepe • Andrew Rehs + Corbett Berger • Clau Rocha + Maria Jose Ramos Villagra • Amyia Ross Brittanii Batts (Tanae b) • Fawaz Sakaw + Arianna Maggio • Lucero Sanchez + Clay-Cofre • Ramin Takloo-Bighash + Yiwen-Lyu • TEEL ONE + Melody Contreras • Pamela Trejo + Kim Yeoh • Cindy Uriostegui + Scum Drop • Ami Vasilopoulos + Stephanie Cruz Rincon • Ivy Waegel + Aryn Hills • Emily Schroeder Willis + Angelica Flores • Raine Yung + Micaela Petkus