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Opinion: When cascarones are outlawed, only outlaws will have cascarones [1]

['Special To El Paso Matters', 'El Paso Matters']

Date: 2023-04-14  

Criminalizing Cascarones

Cascarones, confetti eggs,

Handfuls of joy,

Colored eggs stuffed

With multicolored bits of paper,

A puff of rainbow

Radiating outward

When broken on a head,

Or arm, or shoulder.

Simple joys,

Reminders of childhood

Saving eggs for months,

Carefully opening one end

Letting the egg flow out,

Rinsing each carefully,

Letting them dry,

In a growing pile

Of Easter-awaiting awesomeness,

Then dying the eggs,

Spooning in colored confetti

Gluing a paper strip on one end

All awaiting Easter.

In the afternoon,

We went outside,

Or to the park

And would chase each other,

Breaking eggs on each other’s heads,

If we were nice,

Breaking the egg in our hand first,

Either way, rubbing confetti everywhere,

Until we all looked

Like we’d run

Through a rainbow-colored snowstorm.

My hometown now bans cascarones,

In city parks,

And Customs and Border Protection,

Which we used to call la migra,

Seizes cascarones at the border.

To protect the environment,

To prevent the spread of avian flu.

I understand why these bans happened,

But something’s lost,

The simple, childhood joy,

Of beaning your brother with a confetti egg,

May soon be illegal.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2023/04/14/opinion-save-border-cascarones-tradition/

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