我喜欢阿莉西娅,因为她有次给了我一个小皮包,上面绣着瓜达拉哈拉的字样。那里是阿莉西娅的家,有一天她会回到那里。可今天她在倾听我的忧伤,因为我没有一所房子。

你就住在这里呀,芒果街4006。阿莉西娅说着指向那栋让我羞愧的小屋。

不,那不是我的房子,我说着,摇了摇头,像是这一摇便可以抹去我在那里住过的一年。我不属于。我从来不想来自那里。你有一个家,阿莉西娅,有一天你会去那里,去一个你记得的城市,可我从来没有一所房子,连一张照片都没有……只有梦到的那所。

不。阿莉西娅说。不管你喜欢与否,你都是芒果街的,有一天你也要回来的。

我不会。除非有人让它变好了。

谁来做这事?市长吗?

市长来芒果街的想法让我大笑起来。

谁来做这事?不是市长。

Alicia & I Talking on Edna's Steps

I like Alicia because once she gave me a little leather purse with the word GUADALAJARA stitched on it, which is home for Alicia, and one day she will go back there. But today she is listening to my sadness because I don't have a house.

You live right here,4006 Mango, Alicia says and points to the house I am ashamed of.

No, this isn't my house I say and shake my head as if shaking could undo the year I've lived here. I don't belong. I don't ever want to come from here. You have a home, Alicia, and one day you'll go there, to a town you remember, but me I never had a house, not even a photograph……Only one I dream of.

No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you'll come back too.

Not me. Not until somebody makes it better.

Who's going to do it? The mayor?

And the thought of the mayor coming to Mango Street makes me laugh out loud.

Who's going to do it? Not the mayor.