Where I’m From
I am from Havaianas sandals,
from cachaca and samba.
I am from the winterless beaches.
I am from the amazon,
the coffee and cacao.
I am from Sunday morning church
and curly hair,
from Claudia
and Naterci and De Almeida Neto.
I am from the hard-workers
and restless.
From “be a strong independent woman”
and “Make sure you have common sense!”
I am from Catholicism.
Communion sacramental bread and wine.
I’m from Brazil,
Rice and feijoada.
From the ice cream container filled with beans,
the jumping of seven waves on New Year
and the one kiss on each cheek when greeting.
I am from a family of seven women, who fought their way through life and became inspirational educators, architect and bankers.
I love the descriptive words you used to describe yourself and where you are from. I think we have similar cultural food as well, many of my cultures dishes are rice. The two quotes you used resonated with me as well because from a young age I was always told to be an independent woman and use my judgement.
As I read your poem, I realized our cultures are a bit similar when it comes to food and customs. Brazil is a place Ive always wanted to visit and it feels like I got a sense of what the environment is like just from reading this 🙂 The kiss on the cheek for greeting really felt personal since its like latino etiquette.
The poem started off great and intriguing because some of the sayings your family told you are similar to mines. Also how you included a lot of details about where you came from.
I like that in the middle of the poem you mentioned “strong independent women” and then you brought that back in the end by saying “a family of seven women” and “inspirational educators, architect and bankers”. It was very creative of you to do that because it made the poem feel whole.
Love how you mentioned the strong women in your life. The strong woman in my life is my mother so I definitely relate. I really like how I got some insight to your culture and learned some new things about it.