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Alberto Álvaro Ríos is the author of numerous poetry collections, including A Small Story about the Sky; three short story collections; and a memoir, Capirotada, which received the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award. He is the recipient of a Walt Whitman Award, as well as six Pushcart Prizes in poetry and fiction. His poetry collection The Theater of Night won the 2007 PEN/ Beyond Margins Award. Ríos is Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University.

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Day of the Refugios

by Alberto Álvaro Ríos
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In Mexico and Latin America, celebrating one’s Saint’s day instead of one’s birthday is common.


I was born in Nogales, Arizona,
On the border between
Mexico and the United States.

The places in between places
They are like little countries
Themselves, with their own holidays


Taken a little from everywhere.
My Fourth of July is from childhood,
Childhood itself a kind of country, too.
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