World: United States: New Orleans: Poetry: "El Paso Adelante"

En el pasado
debajo
un solo cielo
nos encontramos confundidos
sin la capacidad de entender
los terrenos escondidos.

En el pasado
sobre un solo sendero
nos encontramos perdidos
sin la capacidad de entender
los bosques emprobrecidos.

Pero ahora
en este momento
en dentro
un solo pueblito
nos encontramos unidos
con la capacidad de entender
estos gobiernos jodidos.

Hoy dia me pregunto
lo que creas
of Bush's imposed immigration chaos?

Hoy dia me pregunto
lo que piensas
of this new found grass-roots resistance?

Where we have found ourselves on this common ground,
on this high ground,
shaking ourselves dry
from the crimes
that left over 1600 people in New Orleans to die.

Where we are shaking ourselves dry
from this draconian government
that turned its head and let
over 1/2 million humans be slaughtered in Guatemala
and continues to pillage and rape our sacred Pachamama.

This government assasinated Padre Oscar Romero
and brutally tortured my dear Colombian companero.

This government opened fire on the Mexican Students in 1968
and then destroyed the democratic Sandinistan State.

This government's hitmen illegally ousted President Jean Aristide
and kills poor people with helicopters made by Sirkorsky.

This government used the Peace Corp to sterilize Bolivianas
y sigue usando libre comercio a robar los Mexicanos de las Mexicanas

This government has turned la frontera a una herida abierta
sobreviviendo detras una mascara cubierta
que se depende en la corrupcion militarizada
donde los seres humanos valen menos de la economia comercializada.

This government has let the corporate world go crazy
making money off of modern day slavery
rooted in widespread ethnic class disparity
upholding USA's economy.

This government uses fucked up immigration programs like the H2B visa
in order to please the
right-wing fascist media divas
who got all kinds of scary, stupid forms of commentary
about a population that in reality is just tired and weary
from this system that doesnt give enough to get by
and now they must face the rising rascist tide
of this so-called democratic society
that criminalizes its workers
through its immigration policy.

For all these reasons combined
El Pueblo today defines
why
we must carry the beautiful sunshine
to America's shadows.

Where workers, immigrants and Latinos
keep the economy's wheels turning
and are now organizing and learning
to capture this fire inside burning
to be visible!

Cause in New Orleans
we are collectively making our faces be seen
united on this
Common Ground
on this High Ground
where we have come together to shake ourselves dry
from the 500 years of crimes
that left over 1600 people in this city to die

En este grupo, somewhere out there
I know, esta una mujer
que tiene trenzas in her hair

who will not let one more cronie
break up a union at a Tyson Meat-Packing Factory
and is committed to telling the millions of border crossing stories.

She will not let one more coyote
lock up another family
in a semi-truck
and will not let one more human die dehydrated in an Arizona desert rut.

Because she is guided by the spirit of Malinche
and inspired by the precedent of Comandante Che
She is educated with the books of Paulo Freire
and now catching the sweet scent of justice in the air.

Ella esta armada por la palabra de Pablo Neruda
y pushed to action by the poetry of Gloria Anzaldua.

The artwork of Frida Kahlo is deep in her soul
alongside the farmer's knowledge to make life grow.

She sweats the salt of the earth from the Empire Mines in New Mexico
y nos declara que "si, la musica de Silvio Rodriquez, yo canto."

She carries the ghosts of Zapata y Tupac Amaru
holding true
to the revolutionary attitude.

She has the thighs of a rock that won't be moved
and the eyes of a hawk that sees right through
the hazy hue
of USA's assimilation vacuum.

Because she is today,
this historic May Day.

She is all of us who've realized
our human right to organize.

She is our working hands
our collective stand
our righteous demand
for the respect of our dignity,
our soverignty,
and our autonomy.

Ella es la vision for a new way
El paso adelante
hasta la victoria, siempre!