I came to America in 1986 for better education, exiled in 1989 for freedom, and secured an EB-2 green card in 1992 and naturalization in 1998, all in hopes of a better life. However, what happened to the Mayas, Incas, Aztecs, and other indigenous people throughout Americas not only gives me a sense of historically collective guilt but makes me wonder how the new comers could have done better when achieving prosperities in the new continent. Freedom is true only when it’s shared with the indigenous people and open to newer immigrants of any race and any religions.
Ming Di, author of six collections of poetry, studied English literature in China and linguistics in the United States. Her translations into Chinese including Marianne Moore’s Observations and her co-translations into English include Empty Chairs (Graywolf Press 2015). She edited & co-translated New Poetry from China 1917-2017 (Black Square Editions 2019).
