Raquel Polanco

Daydreaming in Spanglish Raquel Polanco

"You will spend your entire life trying to find home. Some days you will seek belonging in the bodies of beautiful beings. Most days, like sea turtles that migrated from distant lands, you will carry your home on your back." This collection of poetry is inspired by the feeling of losing and finding home and of building belonging where tidal waves have knocked down shelter. Daydreaming in Spanglish is the rebuilding of that shelter. A coming home. An invitation. It tastes like home-cooked meals that keep your belly full, and sounds like siblings laughing under bed sheets long after bedtime has passed. These poems are hands pressed together filled with prayers, and the feeling of kneeling beneath your mother's skirt while her tears water the soil that you will rise from. Daydreaming in Spanglish is both memoir and reverie from one of today's most confessional poets. Each poem holds a story about family, identity, and the art of code-switching between first and second language. Much like the author, a Hispanic-American poet, these poems were born into Spanish and translated into English. These confessions written in verse are a tribute to dreamers, a montage of gratitude, and a letter to immigrant parents who gave up everything so that our dreams would not fear darkness, but demand daylight. Thus, our daydreaming becomes possible in light of their dreaming. Inspired by the feeling of Mami's hands tousling my curls, the taste of Papi's cafe con pan and Abuela's voice, Daydreaming in Spanglish is a love letter written to dreamers. As the daughter of immigrants, each sentence strung together says thank you in dual dialects: gracias por su sueño hecho mi realidad.