Soy a Recovering Chingada Part 20

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Chingada is one word that truly expresses the complexity of being Mexican. The first obvious fact is the multiple meanings. Once you've surrendered to this you have to delve into the historical, poetic nature of the term. Luckily there is poetry, in a way poetry allows me to be Mexican. Mexico is like a poem: "The Navel of the Moon". It can't be understood without another look at its meaning, just like poetry.

So what's a chingada? Some say it's a mother who has suffered or has been violated or "conquered". Some say it translates into "open" or "vulnerable" (there are many more interpretations) With these ideas, an hijo de la chingada could translate to someone born from a vulnerable mother who has been violated. Hmmm, that could go back to Malinche or up forward to the way the U.S. has violated us and continues to do so on both sides of the greatest violation of all, the border.

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