Marlena Sauceda
To be Bilingual/Ser Bilingüe
I could not
pronounce my Rs
until I was 8 years old
I could not
properly pronounce my name
until I was 8 years old.
My name is Marlena.
My family calls me Marly.
And until I was 8 years old,
everyone I introduced myself to
thought my name was
Molly.
I could not
pronounce my Rs
until I was 8 years old -
pero me las podía
tronar.
I didn’t mind much
that I couldn’t say
mother
or brother
or Marlena,
because I could say
madrrre
herrrmano
Marrrlena.
To be raised
bilingual
is to learn everything
twice.
Once in one language,
and again in another.
To be bilingual,
is to laugh at
twice as many jokes,
to sing along to
twice as many songs,
to cry at
twice as many stories.
It is to be able
to express yourself
in twice as many
ways.
Bio
Marlena Sauceda is an emerging poetry and fiction writer, residing on stolen Onk-Akimel O’odham land in the place currently known as Phoenix, Arizona. She is a second- and fourth-generation Mexican-American, the granddaughter of immigrants, migrant farmworkers, and braceros, the eldest daughter of teen parents, and a first generation college graduate.
Marlena studied Journalism at Arizona State University, where she had several articles published in regional publications. She is the author a self-published chapbook, Ten Years of Love, and is currently seeking a publisher for her first full-length book of poetry, Seedling.