I've adopted some of it's customs and have been embraced by it's people.
Yet these are not my people and this is not my home. I've never been confused.
I know the valleys and the hills of my town, the speck of dirt where I'm from flows through my veins.
The red earthen soil where I took my first steps took a hold my heart and has never let go.
America embraced me with her compassion, she instilled in me Benjamin Franklin's wisdom and inspired me with Harry Truman's steel as he made his mark in history.
Yet this is a surrogate experience, not owned by me. I haven't been assimilated by this melting pot.
These tectonic plates that have just shifted under our feet, feel me with immense hope for the future, a future where we can look forward to the healing of old wounds.
A future where I can be part of the unfinished song that will be sung by generations of Cubans to follow.
Ariel Lopez
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