We cannot depend on any political
party, for both the Democrats and the Republicans have betrayed the basic
principles of the Declaration of Independence. We all recognize the fact that
if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in our
society, the people, the masses, must bring them about.— Representative John
Lewis, 1963
*
I say again, I'm not anti-Democrat,
I'm not anti-Republican, I'm not anti-anything. I'm just questioning their
sincerity, and some of the strategy that they've been using on our people by
promising them promises that they don't intend to keep. When you keep the
Democrats in power, you're keeping the Dixiecrats in power. I doubt that my
good Brother Lomax will deny that. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a
Dixiecrat. That's why, in 1964, it's time now for you and me to become more
politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to
get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to
end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a
ballot or a bullet.—Malcolm X
*
no se necesitan balas para probar un
punto
es logico no se puede hablar con un difunto
el dialogo destruye cualkier situacion macabra
antes de usar balas disparo con palabras—Calle 13
es logico no se puede hablar con un difunto
el dialogo destruye cualkier situacion macabra
antes de usar balas disparo con palabras—Calle 13
*
This year will
mark the second time in my life that I am old enough to vote in a presidential
election. The first time was 2008. I did not vote. This year, I will not vote. Not
being a U.S. citizen I am not eligible to engage in this symbolic act of democracy.
*
I am a poet. I am not an
activist. I could never rightfully call myself an activist.
*
Marco
Saavedra and Viridiana Martinez are undocumented students and DREAM
activists.
Saavedra grew up in NY City
after having arrived from Mexico in 1993. On July 11, risking deportation, Saavedra
and Viridiana Martinez infiltrated the Broward Transitional Center in Florida—a
detention and deportation center, owned and operated for ICE by GEO group; “the world’s leading provider of
correctional detention” with facilities in the U.S., U.k., Australia and South
Africa—in order to organize and bring awareness to those facing deportation and
incarceration in such facilities. People like:
Claudio Rojas,
originally from Argentina, and who was detained by Border Patrol agents after
having picked up his son and accidently driving into the Ft. Lauderdale port,
in Florida. He is now in a hunger strike.
or Anibal Hernandez, from
Mexico, and whose children have—in the absence of his father—been reduced to
live a hand to mouth existence, where what is eaten one day maybe needed the
next.
*
I am not a poet. I could
never rightfully call myself a poet.
Marco, Viridiana, Claudio,
Anibal are poets whose primary concern is life.
Poetry, when it works—when it is real poetry—IS
life.
Anything else is
irrelevant.
they slash poetry from her
roots
she learns to walk without
having roots
even from the desert they kill
her
she walks the desert still
they deported her from her
tongue
she learned to speak their
tongue
bendita sea la mano
que le corta la lengua a la poesia
when you say you can never rightfully call yourself, an activist--what does that mean? what legitimizes this way in which to identify? isn't this what you always talk about--the "undocumented" i see that you words in your poetry are what documents you as an activist...am i not a poet although i dance? or not a writer?
ReplyDeletewe are all these things. &it's things like documentation, degrees, the concept of legitimacy that separate us from who we really are...and pin us down on to that which others only say about us.
What I mean is that real change comes from activist like these kids which I talked about here. Activism requires a certain level of sacrifice and of danger, either physical danger from police or other forms of violence or danger of reprisal from governments. That element of putting yourself in the line does not come with writing and thus I, as writer cannot rightfully call myself by that label. I am not risking anything by writing.
DeleteThat doesn't mean that these ideas don't have consequences. The work of artist does have a consequence and it is futile to measure it. I am not agonizing over this issue. A writer can do alot to change the situation but no change will come from the writing of a poem or like wise from voting every four years for the same two parties which really aren't that different from one another