Natural Criminal
translated by Francisco Aragón
I am
a nomad
in a country
of settlers
a drop
of oil
in a glass
of water
a cactus
flowering
where one
can’t and
shouldn’t
flourish
I am
history’s
fresh and
living wound
my crime
has been being
what I’ve been
all my life
Naturaleza criminal
soy
un nómada
en un país
de sedentarios
una gota
de aceite
en un vaso
de agua
un nopal
que florece
en donde
no se puede
ni se debe
florecer
soy
una herida
todavía viva
de la historia
mi crimen
ha sido ser
lo que he sido
toda mi vida
From From the Other Side of Night/del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems by Francisco X. Alarcón. © 2002 The Arizona Board of Regents. Reprinted by permission of the University of Arizona Press.
Francisco X. Alarcón
Chicano poet and educator Francisco Xavier Alarcón was born in Wilmington, California, on February 21, 1954. During his childhood, Alarcón straddled the line between cultures, spending time living with his parents outside of Los Angeles and his other relatives in Guadalajara, Mexico. This diverse upbringing would significantly influence Alarcón’s work, leading him to become, as he says, a “binational, bicultural, and a bilingual writer.”