Silent No Longer
Stand there, smug,
in your thousand dollar suit,
hundred dollar shoes,
red designer tie, stained with the blood of
a Third World sweatshop.
You feign indignation,
we've insulted you somehow
All we've done is hold up a mirror,
reflecting your truth
as we live it breathe it die it.
Watching you tear down our walls of anger
I laugh.
We will only build them up stronger.
White man, we'll be silent no longer.
UNDER THE EAGLE
Act I: The Eagle Lands
A mist invades our land as the eagle rises.
La obscuridad se acerca.
Un gran frio se enlaza en el corazon del pueblo, mientras el calor
de nuestra sangre se escapa.
A puddle of death forms.
La muerte, like a river, flows.
We are surrounded, invaded, mutilated.
We have been ransacked, pillaged, raped.
De nuestras vidas hemos sido robados, the eagle's
presence giving life to our worst fears.
Land stolen, labor exploited.
Hombres, mujeres, y ninos, sweating through their tears.
Meanwhile, the eagle runs rampant.
The eagle feeds and grows.
Nuestro llanto y nuestro sudor form a single stream of infinite misery
from which our life's blood flows.
Los ladrones se enriquecen, drawing riches from our pain.
They grow stronger, greedier and richer
While we grow poorer, hungrier, and weaker
each day.
* * * * * * * *
Act II: El Pueblo Duerme
The mist has settled.
The eagle is entrenched, powerful amidst
the lives it has wrecked.
Una obscuridad completa ahoga el pais.
La luz parece no volver.
El pueblo duerme, collectively embraced by a common nightmare,
hundidos en nuestra pesadilla comun.
Tears blur hope, pain and hunger breed despair.
Nuestros pensamientos son en escapar
aunque el escape se encuentre solo en la muerte.
Bodies numbed...we wait for death.
Sin esperanza buscamos un refugio en la muerte.
* * * * * * * *
Act III: The Final Act-- The People Awake
The mist is lifting.
The eagle, for the first time, feels fear.
Through the tears there are some who can still see.
Despite the numbing pain there are those who can still feel.
Our anger has risen and our vision has cleared.
Los ladrones que se esconden debajo de la aguila have been revealed.
We won't be living under the eagle much longer.
Bajo la aguila que a los otros trae libertad y riqueza
y a los nuestros solo muerte y pobreza.
Atravez de la tierra a light emerges
los pueblos despiertan, olvidando su terror.
Se acabaron las lagrimas y la desilucion.
Una gran determinacion ha nacido en nuestros vientres,
Y una rabia rebelde occupa nuestras mentes.
The resistance and resolution in our minds grows stronger,
Our anger and rage won't be contained much longer.
Liberation burns fiercely in our hearts,
Unidos lucharemos hasta la victoria o muerte.
The rallying cry of our revolution is "VICTORY OR DEATH"
But this time...the death we seek is not ours.
The eagle will fall and its head will be ours.
Venceremos.
|
Cristina
Serna is a 21-year old Chicana from Boyle Heights. A recent graduate
of Occidental College, Cristina will return to the campus this fall
to begin work on a Master's Degree and teaching credential. She eventually
plans to combine a career in high school teaching with teaching at the
community college level in either Ethnic or Chicano Studies. Cristina writes
"I want to stay within my community and work with the youth who for the
most part do not have access or opportunities to go to college."
Her long-term goals include commitments to "increase student activism,
community involvement and promote cultural and political awareness among
my future students." Cristina has only recently begun sharing her
work in creative writing; these are two of her first poems.Yes,
you can drop Cristina a note
Archived Guest Columns:
Marisela Gonzalez, Vieja The pressure
that little boys feel to fit into a socially constructed concept of masculinity
leads them to assert their "manhood" through the subordination of others....
Cynthia Rojas, I'm a Tourist in My Own Country
I struggle still to find my place; to figure
out where I will finally settle down in my own country; my home sweet democratic
home, that claims to give me a voice when it talks to me face to face,
but attempts to drown it out when I turn my back to it... |
