by Ernie McCray
Oh, I’m practically overflowing
with joy
having my name
living on in perpetuity
as a
University of Arizona
Basketball Ring of Honor honoree,
mostly for the reason that it highlights
just how far Tucson, my hometown,
has come
since my growing up days,
as I was the second Black basketball player
to perform at the U of A
and now there are
Black athletes
representing a range of ethnicities,
both men and women,
all over the place
with power and grace.
And, while in town,
I got around
to visiting
the African American Museum of Southern Arizona,
a sight I hadn’t yet seen,
and the exhibits,
filled me with pride,
just knowing that my people’s
contributions to the Grand Canyon State’s
rich history
is there for all to see.
I left the space
feeling so much
love for my race
and for all of humanity,
totally ready
for the festivities
awaiting me
the next day.
And the day after that,
Maria, my querida, and I
were taken out to dinner
to listen to
some soulful Latin Jazz
at an outside venue
at the old Hotel Congress,
something I wouldn’t have been able to do
earlier in my life in the Jim Crow
Old Pueblo
and that was playing in my mind
when I looked up at a mural on a building
slightly to the left of me
of a beautiful Latina
looking down on me,
representing, I found out from googling,
female empowerment
and leadership
and I realized,
as I looked into her eyes,
that I was breathing the fresh air of change
in a city
whose mayor is a woman of Mexican descent,
the first since the 1870’s,
when a Mexican American man
held such a position
of power and civic responsibility
when Arizona was still a territory.
And what this says to me
is that my hometown is what I’ve spent
a lifetime
wanting and wishing it to be:
a town that respects
its diversity,
something I’m glad I’ve lived to see
and experience personally,
and on the flight back to San Diego
I couldn’t hold back the glee
that filled the insides of me
because human progress
is a pleasing sight to see.
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VIVA HERMANO!