All of the Greats Had a Magnificent One

Day 3 of 100 Poems: What’s in a ‘stache!? Some might say it’s a cultural symbol.

On this day, I pulled two prompts and chose between them. I this was really challenging, maybe it had to do with my mood, but it might have been because I felt like I was trying too hard. That’s the thing with poetry, when you try too hard it often translates to the page.

So, I chose to go with the poem about a mustache. I immediately thought about my dad’s mustache and how as a girl, I would use it to identify him whenever I had to meet him out in public, or on occasions when we got separated at a store or a mall. Since I was a kid who would often run-off, I spent lots of time looking for that mustache.

I also thought about how a mustache is a Mexican symbol of fortitude, strength, and leadership in some way. In looking into some of the more famous mustaches of Mexican men, I came across an interesting fact that said that: Latin American men outside the US seem to have more ‘staches than other ethnic groups.

I began to recall all the mustaches that have had significance in my life. The most iconic, my fathers of course, but I also thought about my uncles and their ‘staches. I remembered how my boy cousins’ attitude would shift when they were finally able to grow one. And of course, who could forget when Cher threw mustache shade at Josh and called his facial hair “chimp pubes” on the movie Clueless. I guess that encompasses my whole world of experience with them.

Mostly I think I wanted my poem to accomplish are three things:

· Communicate that I have a dad with a “stache.
· That his mustache has always been an identifying factor for me.
· Point out that Mexican men have some strong mustaches.

Did that all translate? I guess I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Do you have memories of a mustache in your life? Or has it been free of facial hair? Who’s ‘stache would you write about?

Day 3 Prompt: Write a poem about a mustache.

Tom Selleck

My dad has a face that
wields a mustache.

If you are a Mexican man,
you’ve likely had one too.

All the greats did at one point:
Pedro Infante, Cantinflas,Villa and Zapata.

When I was young, distant family members would say,
I was my dad’s doppelganger.

“Slap a damn mustache on the girl,
and she would be her dad.”

They would say, in Spanish.
It became a source of insecurity for me.

But it was also a source of security for me.
I’d look for that mustache whenever

I’d lose him in a crowd and trust me
I often lost him at stores and malls.

My dad’s mustache had a doppelganger too!
It was Tom Selleck’s mustache.

Any good Mexican man would have
a manly mustache a la Vicente Fernandez,

but my dad was often told that he looked like
Tom Selleck. Especially by gringas at the grocery store.

Meaning that my dad’s mustache always
looked more White than Mexican

to them, and why wouldn’t it?
They didn’t know any better.

Copyright © 2025 by Carla Monroy