Spiritually, emotionally, and physically, I live between the clash of two cultures, one Mexican and one American. This tension is my daily quandary. I need to cross a border—not the U.S.-Mexico border created to divide two nation states, but that which is squeezed between two cultures.

Here in Denver the frontier of Aztlán, the northern outpost of Latin America, lays my journey from south to north; yet, I must deal with a dominant culture whose history is from east to west. Often I must shift my thoughts from Spanish to English, community to capitalism, family to individuality, and back again. My journey is not unique, however, as many Chicanos also experience this clash of traditions.