“My mother, a firm believer in coincidences, ghosts, and superstition, has told me that a child’s name often seals their fate.”
going to be okay. Because underneath Ruby embed our lives is undeniable. This bond was Woo lipstick and expensive acrylics, I’m still a marked by our surname: Ceniceros Dominglossy feather plucked away by life’s hunger. guez. Ceniceros, holder of ashes, and Dominguez, from domingo, Sunday. My mother, a firm I feel a sense of responsibility to be more than believer in coincidences, ghosts, and superstihuman, but I could never relate to a superhero. tion, has told me that a child’s name often seals For a long time, I found my cape through hoop their fate. earrings and a promise to never fall in love. I felt undeserving of nice things and guilty when When I was born, I weighed only three pounds. I had them, because I’m not yet where I want My veins tattooed my paper skin, and for the to be. Until I’ve landed in this promised land of two months I spent in my incubator, I was just American Dreams, I’ll battle with this guilt the one wrong breath away from death. way Batman goes off and fights crime, or whatever. Bruce Wayne doesn’t know what poverty I wonder if I felt loved in those fragile moments is. Bruce Wayne isn’t an immigrant with a — loved with the passion of a mother’s faith, of string of generational curses to break. a mother who is one Ave Maria away from losing the baby girl she held and cared for all these ~*~ months. I wonder if she knew I loved her and that I was holding on so I could one day hold They say we’re born alone and die alone, ex- her hands and say that I love her, too. cept I was born alongside a baby boy. Together, we coexisted in a dark nothingness for eight My family didn’t miss a single day of visiting. months and then braved life’s first challenge When my mom couldn’t be there, my grandside by side. parents would take turns caring for me. They’d bring their Bible, pray, and when it was time I wonder if I loved my brother while in the for them to go, they’d leave the open Bible womb. I didn’t know or need to know who he on top of my incubator to pick up where they was, but the unbreakable link that will forever left off the next day. Simultaneously, as I was
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