Inheritances by Johanny Vázquez Paz

translated by Lawrence Schimel

Inheritances

I don’t know at what moment
my sisters inhabited me,
when they looted my room
to install their own belongings
and furnish me with their dreams.

I don’t understand how la abuela
got dressed in my lips,
blabbered opinions and decided my future,
and my mother drew on my face
this mask the twin of her own
with all her worries
painted on my own profile.

I don’t remember when my cousins
shod me with their convictions
to set off together with protest banners,
nor on what day my aunts came to visit
and took over all the empty
corners of my home.

I’ve packed thousands of suitcases,
filled their bellies with truncated dreams.
I unpack and try on the clothes I inherited
some are wide and infinite as the sea;
they allow for swimming without restraints.
Others are narrow and antiquated
cutting off breath, confining passions.

I don’t know why my blood is as heavy as a tank
full of survivors of other wars
and when I fall, a battalion of souls picks me up
to heal my wounds with their kit of remedies.
Why I am a hundred women in one
hybrid of virgin possibilities
and I feel on my skin the pain and the laughter
of all the warrior women I inherited.

Herencias

No sé en qué momento
mis hermanas me habitaron,
cuándo saquearon mi cuarto
para mudar sus pertenencias
y amueblarme de sus sueños.

No comprendo cómo la abuela
se vistió en mis labios,
balbuceó opiniones y decidió mi futuro,
y mi madre dibujó en mi rostro
esta máscara gemela suya
con todas sus preocupaciones
maquilladas en el perfil.

No recuerdo cuándo mis primas
me calzaron sus convicciones
para marchar juntas con carteles de protesta,
ni en qué día mis tías llegaron de visita
y se apoderaron de todos los rincones
solitarios de mi hogar.

He empacado miles de maletas,
llenado sus barrigas de sueños truncados.
Desempaco y me pruebo las ropas legadas,
algunas son anchas e infinitas como el mar;
permiten nadar sin restricciones.
Otras son estrechas y anticuadas,
cortan la respiración, confinan las pasiones.

No sé por qué mi sangre pesa como un tanque
lleno de sobrevivientes de otras guerras,
y cuando caigo, un batallón de almas me recoge
para sanarme las heridas con su botica de remedios.
Por qué será que soy cien mujeres en una,
híbrido de posibilidades vírgenes,
y siento en mi piel el dolor y la risa
de todas las guerreras que heredé.

Johanny Vázquez Paz is the author of Sagrada familia (winner of the International Latino Book Award,
2015), Querido voyeur, and Streetwise Poems/Poemas callejeros. She won first prize in the poetry category in
Northwestern Illinois University’s Consenso Literary Contest of poetry and short stories, and second prize in
the short story category. She coedited the anthology Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el corazón y la
tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest and her work has been included in the anthologies City of the Big
Shoulders, Ejército de rosas, En la 18 a la 1, and The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, among
others. She currently teaches at Harold Washington College in Chicago, Illinois. I Offer My Heart as a
Target/Ofrezco mi corazón como una diana is her latest collection of poetry.

.
Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has
published over one hundred books in a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, graphic novels, and
children’s literature. He is also a prolific literary translator. Recent translations include the novels The Wild
Book by Juan Villoro (Restless Books) and La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Feminist Press in the
US/Modjaji Books in South Africa); the graphic novel of Jesús Carrasco’s Out in the Open (SelfMadeHero);
and poetry collections Destruction of the Lover by Luis Panini (Pleaides Press), Bomarzo by Elsa Cross
(Shearsman Books), Impure Acts by Ángelo Néstore (Indolent Books) and I Offer My Heart as a Target by
Johanny Vázquez Paz (Akashic). He lives in Madrid, Spain.