/lit/ - Literature

JIM BUTCHER

>>3689025

>>>/lgtb/

>>3689025
Chicano, not Chicago...

Also Jim Butcher isn't even from Chicago...

This is a terrible thread.

>>3689025

>>>/lgbt/

since you have none apparently OP why don't you shut the fuck up and take your thread elsewhere. the way you make and sustain a thread is contributing content otherwise don't bother making one.

>>3689068

Hey, that sounds nice, but what about sucking my dick, dude?

>>3689068

>>Behold, the Queen of /Lit/ has spoken.

>>3689001

'sup, homes. Chicano lit rules. I know this may be clichéd and outdated, but I stick by the father of it all: Rudolph Anaya's "Bless me, Ultima". It's coming of age stuff and pretty much I have read Chicano writers after that against the light of this one.

Have you read it? It's a truly powerful book.

>>3689098
>>3689095
man, you come in with some faggot fucking picture (racial pride is cool because we're a minority right??) and then don't even offer any suggestions of your own. btw i am south american

>>3689141

OP here. I don't give a shit who you are or where are you from. If you don't have any suggestions, just fuck off.

Respectfully.

>>3689141

And OP needs that piece of not requested information from you because ...?

>>3689001

I love Drown by Junot Diaz, OP.

>>3689001

Man, it's non-fiction but "Across The Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border" is a treasure.

Stand proud, bro.

>>3689162
Junot Diaz is a Puerto Rican not a CHICANO ese. CHICANNOOOOOOOOO PRIDE

>>3689154
So you never read a chicano author before you made this thread is what you're saying? How fucking chicano are you if you need to come on 4chan and ask a bunch of white basement dwellers about your own culture? Where you at motherfucker?

The poetry of this guy, Gary Soto, is superb.

I like the cadence, the unmistakably Mexican American flavor, and the longing in its theme. I read it when I was young and don't know if the man is still rolling, but be sure to check it out. If you like poetry.

>>3689171

Take it easy on the kid, anon. He's clearly a young one. Your e-Penis won't get bigger by badgering him.

>>3689177

OP here. I don't dig poetry much. Not because I don't like it, but because I don't get it if it is too complex. I will give it a try. Thanks!

>>3689001

TACOS! TACOS! :D

>>3689193
Gary Soto is Mexican-Japanese, don't know if your chicano soul can handle it. But really, to be kind, Bicycle Days is a pretty good book.

>>3689208

I mean I like tacos, OP. Not making fun of your heritage.

>>3689211

My Chicano soul can handle anything. I am not limited by my culture. I want to read all kind of stuff.

>>3689213

gee thanks

>>3689166

Has this been made into a documentary?

>>3689226
if your chicano soul can handle anything, why are you asking for chicano material only?

>>3689237

Because I am in the mood for that. Problem?

When I open a thread asking for Japanese literature, you are kindly invited to participate. Same goes when I ask for French stuff, and so on. Hope you get the idea.

>>3689265

Oye, hermanito, no te pelees. Tomalo con take it easy. O.k.?

>>3689265
Ok, be sure to open your other faggot threads with racial pride images. May I suggest the imperial sun flag for Japanese?

Next time just ask for favorite chicano authors and drop the rest.

not actually Chicano (es cubano american) but Piri Thomas is a pretty fun read.

i guess oscar acosta might be up your ally, but i personally did not finish twilight of the cochroach people.

>>3689001

>implying chicano lit isn't racist...

>>/spic/

>spic bullshit

does it say 4chan.mx at the top? I didn't think so. Get off the library computer and go back to mugging and beheading hard working white people like your savage race normally does, Paco.

>>3689001
>racist stuff will be reported
>uses racist image in the OP

Troll thread, move along. I don't know what I expected from someone who's probably in the zetas, CDG, or sinaloa, considering most chicanos can't speak a lick of English and bitch and moan about our country not speaking their fucking language after they illegally emigrated here.

>>3689403
white people deserve to die

>>3689403
>Paco
>not Pedro

Oso Blanco

http://www.zinelibrary.info/files/Robin%20The%20Hood_The%20Oso%20Blanco%20Zine.pdf

Wait... Mexicans can read?

Take it to /wetback/ pedro

>>3689431
Yes, people who put in honest work for a living deserve to die. typical mudskin logic. This is what happens when your entire country is an evolutionary throwback akin to Africa as well as having one of the highest murder rates in the world.

>>3689426
>implying mexicans can read, cartel members or not

>>3689431

I remember walking past two Chicanos up Lexington Ave in Manhattan and overhearing "pinche blanco'" muttered under the breath of one of them.

I turned and glared. It took that fat racist fuck by surprise that I understood him.

I'm lucky I didn't get stabbed

>>3689467
You should move to a state like Arizona or Texas, that way you can conceal carry, and if some hood spic pulls a blade on you, you have every legal right to mag dump on him right then and there because he threatened your life by brandishing a weapon. Help clean up the streets!

>>3689462
white people deserve to die because they are the world's cancer

>>3689467
you should've been stabbed. go back

>>3689459
>mfw not OP
>mfw Mexican
>mfw name's Pedro
>mfw your racism probably keeps you away from awesome literature such as Pedro Paramo

I'm from Europe and while we have our big issues with immigrants from Arab countries and Africa I don't think it's anywhere as bad as the situation in US and that constant stream of shitskins from Mexico and all the other crapholes in Central America coming to the country for whatever reason. At least we have few big seas separating us from all these craplands, you have only a river that can be easily passed by any monkey. My condolences.

>>3689480
Take this shit out of /lit/

>>3689498
you take >>3689495
that shit out of /lit/

>>3689480
>you should've been stabbed. go back

May 21, 1520. Best day in Mexican History.

>>3689480
>implying mexicans have contributed anything significant to the world in any field

el blog del narco is a prime example of why your country and your entire race is a blight on this earth. pic related.

>>3689495

Hello friend

Gee, lots of /pol/ raiders will be banned from /lit/ for a few days, lol

>>3689521
if the OP isnt banned too then /lit/ is confirmed for shit, since it's the image he chose that started all this.

>>3689480

But you have your own country full of shitskinned lazy fucks and you seriously don't have to see any white people ever in your life. Just stay in your zoo and don't come to the country that's north to you. Also tell all the beaners around you to do the same. It's that easy. I'm perfectly OK with building a big epic wall that will separate civilized world from all the spic- and niglands so you and me will be happy forever.

>>3689530

I think you'd be more at home in /pol/, kid.

>>3689531

So much anger. Stormfront has really turned your brain into a pulp. Why so much hate? Tone it down. It's a literature forum, kid.

>>3689533
>implying you are only allowed to browse 1 board on 4chan

great logic, beanpole. I'm a tripfag on /pol/ and /int/ already and have been for years.

>>3689536
if it's just a literature forum then why did the OP request racist literature, and others are giving him said racist literature? Your facade of innocence is shit.

>>3689537

Please, keep your racial slurs to the board where racism is tolerated according to the rules. Maturity consists of knowing there is a time and a place for everything. This forum is for literature, not for your racism.

>>3689540
>talking about maturity on 4chan, a place famously known as the asshole of the internet
>implying a mud ape such as yourself has even an inkling of what civility is

Are you really that surprised that a racist literature thread drew ire from those that said literature is racist towards?

>>3689539

Hey, kid, I just got to this thread. So tone it down.

People can come here and ask for literature suggestions from any corner with any photo. Even the /pol/ scum puts pics of their homo Führer when asking for some recommendations.

Seriously, tone the rage down and stop making a fool of yourself. If somebody uses the Union Jack and asks for English literature, I'd bet it would be completely acceptable.

>>3689548
>making a fool of yourself

I'm not that guy, but we're anonymous for a reason. Pic related, it's you.

>>3689547
>racist literature

>>3689548
>someone else has used racism to start their threads before so it's okay!

This is what you sound like, and you're surprised that racism brings even more racism into the thread? Wow.

>chicano lit

my fucking sides

>>3689547

Stop embarrassing yourself. Chicanos are like any other cultural group. They have their literature. And you letting your true colors show in your ranting won't change that a bit.

Seriously, you're staining the only civilized forum in all 4chan. Be mature and tone it down. There is even a civilized, SMART way to debate of Chicano literature is a legitimate literature or not.

If it is recognized in the American syllabus I think you should, basically, keep quiet. Or send a letter to your congressman.

Gee, the scum of /pol/ has truly ruined /lit/

I am off. Every time I read the likes of you, I feel embarrassed to call myself an American.

>>3689548
>Union Jack and asks for English literature

This is not the same as a chicano power image. What you posted (or OP if I am mistaken about your identity) is like posting this image and asking about Harlem Renaissance poetry.

>>3689565
this is clearly going nowhere, and you're either a troll or a colossal moron. Chicano refers to Mexicans that illegally emigrated to America and send money back to family/relatives in Mexico, usually obtained by committing crimes against white people who make a lot more money than a yardworker or home depot labor ape does.

You are not white, and you will never be white, so I suggest you stop pretending to be one, telling others to be mature in a thread that clearly shits on white people from the first post.

since this thread is sufficiently ruined, I will now take my leave, as I gain nothing arguing with a bunch of cartel supporters.

>>3689573
This just show how stupid you are.
The empowerment of black people, or chicanos or whatever else does not mean racism towards white people.

Posting a pic related to black panthers and asking for BLACK literature should have no "hurr durr racist towards white" coming.

>>3689572
>implying a bunch of beaners asking for beaner pride literature are /pol/

/pol/ primarily hates niggers and jews, they don't really care about brown people that much.

>>3689579
> in a thread that clearly shits on white people from the first post.

mean while OP
>Give me your favorite Chicano writers.

wow, poor white guy.

>>3689586
>implying Chicanos are not completely against the white man and want to turn America and eventually Canada into one giant Mexico

>yo homes be a faggot

Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas

>>3689581

The Chicano Movement and Black Panther Party explicitly advocated violence towards innocents based on historical injustice.

These movements and organizations are not about equality. They are analogous to militant feminists who wish to castrate men.

>>3689594
chi·ca·no
/CHiˈkänō/
Noun
(in North America) A person of Mexican origin or descent.

https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=chicano%20definition

I'm sorry,poor white guy.

How about you fuck off to /lgbt/, OP.

>>3689597
>CHICANOS ARE TOTALLY INNOCENT AND NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG

Yeah okay. this is what your innocent "chicanos" do on american soil.

>>3689596
>Black Panther Party explicitly advocated violence towards innocents based on historical injustice.

this is the 10 point plan by the Black Panthers.

1) "Freedom; the power to determine the destiny of the Black and oppressed communities.

2) Full Employment; give every person employment or guaranteed income.

3) End to robbery of Black communities; the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules as promised to ex-slaves during the reconstruction period following the emancipation of slavery.

4) Decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings; the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people can build.

5) Education for the people; that teaches the true history of Blacks and their role in present day society.

6) Free health care; health facilities which will develop preventive medical programs.

7) End to police brutality and murder of Black people and other people of color and oppressed people.

8) End to all wars of aggression; the various conflicts which exist stem directly from the United States ruling circle.

9) Freedom for all political prisoners; trials by juries that represent our peers.

10) Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and community control of modern industry."

it was about equality, it wasn't however, a pacific resistance movement.

>>3689607
>being this dense

>>3689609

And the Nation of Islam is about peace and love...

What people do and what they say they do are vastly different. You MUST know this.

>>3689614
excuse black people for not all wanting to be trained like this

http://pinterest.com/pin/208995238929029003/

>>3689548
>implying hitler did anything wrong

look at europe now, they are being completely invaded by muslims, who are even worse than mexicans.

>>3689622
>http://pinterest.com/pin/208995238929029003/

false dichotomy

>>3689609
Yes, and Stalin's goal was to create a world of equality, free from the blight of capitalism.

Yet in the end he was just another psychotic dictator.

As this guy said: >>3689614 there's a huge difference between the rhetoric of any organisation, and what they actually do.

>>3689622
How fucking naive are you?

I've become convinced over the years that every tumblr-tier social activist has the world experience and knowledge of history of a fucking 4 year old child.

>>3689631
tumblr activism sucks because they are more worried about ad campaigns than actual shit going on.

>>3689628
>>3689627
Can I really be accused of false dichotomy at the same time that is all Chicano/Black power person being accused of advocating violence towards the white man?

>>3689636
>Can I really be accused of false dichotomy at the same time that is all Chicano/Black power person being accused of advocating violence towards the white man?

Yes you can because the historical record shows that these movements explicitly advocated violence towards whites.

I think you fail to see how your image is just as offensive as this one. Imagine I posted this and asked about Southern Gothic lit.

>>3689649
Is not my image.

>>3689649

That is not correct. Check the syllabus of the major universities in the U.S. and you will see that Chicano literature is a recognized genre and the U.S. government has recognized it as a transcendental part of American literature- Moreover, it is included in syllabus throughout the country to strengthen multiculturalism.

Unlike the KKK, Chicano literature is not about hating anybody, but about a distinctive identity which enriches the literary culture of the U.S.

Overall, you are full of shit and guilty of bigotry not to mention horrendous, childish fallacies.

>>3689727

I wrote about the Chicano Power image as associated with Chicano Nationalism...which explicitly calls for return of Aztlan by any means necessary. I was not writing about a literary genre.

OPs poorly chosen image caused this mess not Chicano lit.

>>3689727
>transcendental

I don't think you know what this word means...

>>3689794

You mean the symbol of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement aimed at empowering the Mexican Americans? Nope, it is not as you say it. If you want to ascribe that meaning to it, then it is your problem, but the symbol was widely used in the 40s and is now a piece of Americana.

Not even Aztlán is a term or symbol of hate! And that even taking into accounts that some groups in the past, effectively, used the term as part of their belligerent propaganda. Even the UCLA journal of Chicano studies is named after that mythological place and, surprise surprise, has sported the symbol used by OP as header for some articles.

So... nope, you're mistaken. Moreover, it is evident that OP created a troll thread or one purporting or promoting violence.

Funnily, pics of Gôring or Himmler marching with their buds have been used in here to ask unrelated questions, and not a single bit of attention has been put to it like this symbol.

So, I am calling bullshit on all of this outrage.

>>3689001
I don't read chicano writers because I don't care about bean burritos or lowriders, and I don't like to steal.

/thread

>>3689855

It is already an achievement that your kind is able to read. And by your kind I mean racists. Those generalizations, intended to be funny, only shed light over you as a sad, sad human being.

Go back to /pol/

>>3689864
>It is already an achievement that your kind is able to read

Since those who don't share your worldview are illiterate?

How do you have the nerve to accuse others of committing informal fallacies?

>>3689864

>your kind

Hehe, generalizing much?

Also, please understand what the term "racist" means.

>The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.

Unfortunately, due to your lack of critical thinking skills, you assumed I was serious and believed that certain races are inherently better than others. You must be autistic (or be completely lacking in the social perceptiveness area) because most people would understand that my post was a joke.

Please, read something that deals with humor. One day, you may understand it.

>>3689885

Don't cop out, coward. It is not funny to generalize on our Hispanic population as thieves. There are two types of racists: those who at least have the cojones to stand their ground, and those who chicken out and claim to be joking.

ANY negative stereotype when perpetuated infers the superiority of the issuer.

Read.

>>3689403
>lel

>>3689894

I bet you are so much fun at parties...

>>3689462
>guess who caused mexico's economic downfall

>>3689474
don't tell me you actually frequent /lit/

>>3689495
what it is NAFTA

>>3689596
>implying the movements didn't change their views and approaches over time
>implying everyone in the movement adhered to a set of tenets

>>3689474
Have you read The Stranger, by Albert Camus?

>>3689919
>3689919

What do you think Hemingway would have done of someone pulled a knife on him?

Do you think that great artists are precluded from being bigots? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_work_of_Charles_Dickens))

Being literary != being non-violent or multiculturist.

You are idealistic, woefully ignorant, and likely a troll.

>>3689932

The KKK was in some sense a club for community minded southern gentlemen in its heyday. It is still associated with racism just like the BPP and Chicano Nationalism.

>>3689894
>lie about being a racist

No, fuck you. I can make jokes at whom ever I want.

And by the way,

Generalizations and stereotypes ARE funny. Stop being so asspained

>>3689973

Just what I thought. A coward.

Tedious and predictable.

Hopefully one day you'll grow a pair, kid.

>>3689973

Fitting image in response to someone who I imagine resents the colonization of the New World.

>>3690007
Apparently, you still can't understand my point.

Why do you continue to press your point when all you can do is throw the old Ad Hominem?

>I'll call him a coward, I'll insult his manhood. That'll get him.

IDGAF. Continue on sir, I'm out of this thread, the premise of which is ACTUALLY RACIST.

>>3690021

Typical coward. Adiós.

>ctrl+f "Baca"
>0 results

Seriously, /lit/? Fucking seriously?

Jimmy Santiago Baca.

saged and reported

fucking beaners have no manners

>>3689911
He probably doesn't go to parties

>>3690044

Rule Nr. 7, kid.

>>3690021
>Apparently, you still can't understand my point.
>Why do you continue to press your point when all you can do is throw the old Ad Hominem?
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/the-fallacy-fallacy

>>3690026

Finally, a real contribution to this thread!

Thank you anon.

I just read from his website that there is a KS for a documentary on A Place to Stand.

This is powerful!

It was a time when they were afraid of him.
My father, a bare man, a gypsy, a horse
with broken knees no one would shoot.
Then again, he was like the orange tree,
and young women plucked from him sweet fruit.
To meet him, you must be in the right place,
even his sons and daughter, we wondered
where was papa now and what was he doing.
He held the mystique of travelers
that pass your backyard and disappear into the trees.
Then, when you follow, you find nothing,
not a stir, not a twig displaced from its bough.
And then he would appear one night.
Half covered in shadows and half in light,
his voice quiet, absorbing our unspoken thoughts.
When his hands lay on the table at breakfast,
they were hands that had not fixed our crumbling home,
hands that had not taken us into them
and the fingers did not gently rub along our lips.
They were hands of a gypsy that filled our home
with love and safety, for a moment;
with all the shambles of boards and empty stomachs,
they filled us because of the love in them.
Beyond the ordinary love, beyond the coordinated life,
beyond the sponging of broken hearts,
came the untimely word, the fallen smile, the quiet tear,
that made us grow up quick and romantic.

>>3690092

cont...

Papa gave us something: when we paused from work,
my sister fourteen years old working the cotton fields,
my brother and I running like deer,
we would pause, because we had a papa no one could catch,
who spoke when he spoke and bragged and drank,
he bragged about us: he did not day we were smart,
nor did he say we were strong and were going to be rich someday.
He said we were good. he held us up to the world for it to see,
three children that were good, who understood love in a quiet way,
who owned nothing but calloused hands and true freedom,
and that is how he made us: he offered us to the wind,
to the mountains, to the skies of autumn and spring.
He said, “Here are my children! Care for them!”
And he left again, going somewhere like a child
with a warrior´s heart, nothing could stop him.
My grandmother would look at him for a long time,
and then she would say nothing.
She chose to remain silent, praying each night,
guiding down like a root in the heart of earth,
clutching sunlight and rains to her ancient breast.
And I am the blossom of many nights.
A threefold blossom: my sister is as she is,
my brother is as he is, and I am as I am.
Through sacred ceremony of living, daily living,
arose three distinct hopes, three loves,
out of the long felt nights and days of yesterday.

>>3690087

Argumentum ad logicam is a stretch here especially when your claim that ANY negative stereotype when perpetuated infers the superiority of the issuer is unsubstantiated and likely false.

>>3690026

Hey, bro, OP here.

I want to sincerely thank you for this. Many of his poems are available online and it is simply fantastic!

I have no words to thank you. It seems the racism and trolling in this thread was worth for this eye opener. Man, this guy is quality!

>>3690092
>>3690095
You're welcome, bro.

You really ought to read A Place To Stand, as well.

>>3690136

I certainly will.

You're quality!

Kid, you must look into the poem which started it all, I am Joaquin, by Corky Gonzalez.

Yo soy Joaquín,
perdido en un mundo de confusión:
I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion,
caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,
confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes,
suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society.
My fathers have lost the economic battle
and won the struggle of cultural survival.
And now! I must choose between the paradox of
victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger,
or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis,
sterilization of the soul and a full stomach.
Yes, I have come a long way to nowhere,
unwillingly dragged by that monstrous, technical,
industrial giant called Progress and Anglo success....
I look at myself.
I watch my brothers.
I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate.
I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life --
MY OWN PEOPLE
I am Cuauhtémoc, proud and noble,
leader of men, king of an empire civilized
beyond the dreams of the gachupín Cortés,
who also is the blood, the image of myself.
I am the Maya prince.
I am Nezahualcóyotl, great leader of the Chichimecas.
I am the sword and flame of Cortes the despot
And I am the eagle and serpent of the Aztec civilization.
I owned the land as far as the eye
could see under the Crown of Spain,
and I toiled on my Earth and gave my Indian sweat and blood
for the Spanish master who ruled with tyranny over man and
beast and all that he could trample
But...THE GROUND WAS MINE.
I was both tyrant and slave.
As the Christian church took its place in God's name,
to take and use my virgin strength and trusting faith,
the priests, both good and bad, took--
but gave a lasting truth that Spaniard Indian Mestizo
were all God's children.

>>3690225

cont...

And from these words grew men who prayed and fought
for their own worth as human beings, for that
GOLDEN MOMENT of FREEDOM.
I was part in blood and spirit of that courageous village priest
Hidalgo who in the year eighteen hundred and ten
rang the bell of independence and gave out that lasting cry--
El Grito de Dolores
"Que mueran los gachupines y que viva la Virgen de Guadalupe...."
I sentenced him who was me I excommunicated him, my blood.
I drove him from the pulpit to lead a bloody revolution for him and me....
I killed him.
His head, which is mine and of all those
who have come this way,
I placed on that fortress wall
to wait for independence. Morelos! Matamoros! Guerrero!
all companeros in the act, STOOD AGAINST THAT WALL OF INFAMY
to feel the hot gouge of lead which my hands made.
I died with them ... I lived with them .... I lived to see our country free.
Free from Spanish rule in eighteen-hundred-twenty-one.
Mexico was free??
The crown was gone but all its parasites remained,
and ruled, and taught, with gun and flame and mystic power.
I worked, I sweated, I bled, I prayed,
and waited silently for life to begin again.
I fought and died for Don Benito Juarez, guardian of the Constitution.
I was he on dusty roads on barren land as he protected his archives
as Moses did his sacraments.
He held his Mexico in his hand on
the most desolate and remote ground which was his country.
And this giant little Zapotec gave not one palm's breadth
of his country's land to kings or monarchs or presidents of foriegn powers.

>>3690233

cont...

I am Joaquin.
I rode with Pancho Villa,
crude and warm, a tornado at full strength,
nourished and inspired by the passion and the fire of all his earthy people.
I am Emiliano Zapata.
"This land, this earth is OURS."
The villages, the mountains, the streams
belong to Zapatistas.
Our life or yours is the only trade for soft brown earth and maize.
All of which is our reward,
a creed that formed a constitution
for all who dare live free!
"This land is ours . . .
Father, I give it back to you.
Mexico must be free. . . ."
I ride with revolutionists
against myself.
I am the Rurales,
coarse and brutal,
I am the mountian Indian,
superior over all.
The thundering hoof beats are my horses. The chattering machine guns
are death to all of me:
Yaqui
Tarahumara
Chamala
Zapotec
Mestizo
Español.
I have been the bloody revolution,
The victor,
The vanquished.
I have killed
And been killed.
I am the despots Díaz
And Huerta
And the apostle of democracy,
Francisco Madero.
I am
The black-shawled
Faithfulwomen
Who die with me
Or live
Depending on the time and place.
I am faithful, humble Juan Diego,
The Virgin of Guadalupe,
Tonantzín, Aztec goddess, too.
I rode the mountains of San Joaquín.
I rode east and north
As far as the Rocky Mountains,
And
All men feared the guns of
Joaquín Murrieta.
I killed those men who dared
To steal my mine,
Who raped and killed my love
My wife.

>>3690241

cont...

Then I killed to stay alive.
I was Elfego Baca,
living my nine lives fully.
I was the Espinoza brothers
of the Valle de San Luis.
All were added to the number of heads that in the name of civilization
were placed on the wall of independence, heads of brave men
who died for cause or principle, good or bad.
Hidalgo! Zapata!
Murrieta! Espinozas!
Are but a few.
They dared to face
The force of tyranny
Of men who rule by deception and hypocrisy.
I stand here looking back,
And now I see the present,
And still I am a campesino,
I am the fat political coyote–
I,
Of the same name,
Joaquín,
In a country that has wiped out
All my history,
Stifled all my pride,
In a country that has placed a
Different weight of indignity upon my age-old burdened back.
Inferiority is the new load . . . .
The Indian has endured and still
Emerged the winner,
The Mestizo must yet overcome,
And the gachupín will just ignore.
I look at myself
And see part of me
Who rejects my father and my mother
And dissolves into the melting pot
To disappear in shame.
I sometimes
Sell my brother out
And reclaim him
For my own when society gives me
Token leadership
In society's own name.
I am Joaquín,
Who bleeds in many ways.
The altars of Moctezuma
I stained a bloody red.
My back of Indian slavery
Was stripped crimson
From the whips of masters
Who would lose their blood so pure
When revolution made them pay,
Standing against the walls of retribution.
Blood has flowed from me on every battlefield between
campesino, hacendado,
slave and master and revolution.
I jumped from the tower of Chapultepec
into the sea of fame–
my country's flag
my burial shroud–
with Los Niños,
whose pride and courage
could not surrender
with indignity
their country's flag
to strangers . . . in their land.
Now I bleed in some smelly cell from club or gun or tyranny.
I bleed as the vicious gloves of hunger
Cut my face and eyes,

>>3690245

cont...

The art of our great señores,
Diego Rivera,
Siqueiros,
Orozco, is but another act of revolution for
the salvation of mankind.
Mariachi music, the heart and soul
of the people of the earth,
the life of the child,
and the happiness of love.
The corridos tell the tales
of life and death,
of tradition,
legends old and new, of joy
of passion and sorrow
of the people–who I am.
I am in the eyes of woman,
sheltered beneath
her shawl of black,
deep and sorrowful eyes
that bear the pain of sons long buried or dying,
dead on the battlefield or on the barbed wire of social strife.
Her rosary she prays and fingers endlessly
like the family working down a row of beets
to turn around and work and work.
There is no end.
Her eyes a mirror of all the warmth
and all the love for me,
and I am her
and she is me.
We face life together in sorrow,
anger, joy, faith and wishful
thoughts.
I shed the tears of anguish
as I see my children disappear
behind the shroud of mediocrity,
never to look back to remember me.
I am Joaquín.
I must fight
and win this struggle
for my sons, and they
must know from me
who I am.
Part of the blood that runs deep in me
could not be vanquished by the Moors.
I defeated them after five hundred years,
and I have endured.
Part of the blood that is mine
has labored endlessly four hundred
years under the heel of lustful
Europeans.
I am still here!

>>3690243

cont...

As I fight my way from stinking barrios
To the glamour of the ring
And lights of fame
Or mutilated sorrow.
My blood runs pure on the ice-caked
Hills of the Alaskan isles,
On the corpse-strewn beach of Normandy,
The foreign land of Korea
And now Vietnam.
Here I stand
Before the court of justice,
Guilty
For all the glory of my Raza
To be sentenced to despair.
Here I stand,
Poor in money,
Arrogant with pride,
Bold with machismo,
Rich in courage
And
Wealthy in spirit and faith.
My knees are caked with mud.
My hands calloused from the hoe. I have made the Anglo rich,
Yet
Equality is but a word–
The Treaty of Hidalgo has been broken
And is but another threacherous promise.
My land is lost
And stolen,
My culture has been raped.
I lengthen the line at the welfare door
And fill the jails with crime.
These then are the rewards
This society has
For sons of chiefs
And kings
And bloody revolutionists,
Who gave a foreign people
All their skills and ingenuity
To pave the way with brains and blood
For those hordes of gold-starved strangers,
Who
Changed our language
And plagiarized our deeds
As feats of valor
Of their own.
They frowned upon our way of life
and took what they could use.
Our art, our literature, our music, they ignored–
so they left the real things of value
and grabbed at their own destruction
by their greed and avarice.
They overlooked that cleansing fountain of
nature and brotherhood
which is Joaquín.

>>3690249

and finally, the las part

I have endured in the rugged mountains
Of our country
I have survived the toils and slavery of the fields.
I have existed
In the barrios of the city
In the suburbs of bigotry
In the mines of social snobbery
In the prisons of dejection
In the muck of exploitation
And
In the fierce heat of racial hatred.
And now the trumpet sounds,
The music of the people stirs the
Revolution.
Like a sleeping giant it slowly
Rears its head
To the sound of
Tramping feet
Clamoring voices
Mariachi strains
Fiery tequila explosions
The smell of chile verde and
Soft brown eyes of expectation for a
Better life.
And in all the fertile farmlands,
the barren plains,
the mountain villages,
smoke-smeared cities,
we start to MOVE.
La raza!
Méjicano!
Español!
Latino!
Chicano!
Or whatever I call myself,
I look the same
I feel the same
I cry
And
Sing the same.
I am the masses of my people and
I refuse to be absorbed.
I am Joaquín.
The odds are great
But my spirit is strong,
My faith unbreakable,
My blood is pure.
I am Aztec prince and Christian Christ.
I SHALL ENDURE!
I WILL ENDURE!

Edward James Olmos has some sort of grant to support young Latino artists, I think. Maybe you should google that?