Chicano Poet

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Pioneers

Crazy as this may sound to you,
Henry no longer feels like a stranger in a strange land.

The country has reverted to Mexico.
Mr. Bones looking illegally wet,

walks into Wal-Mart
and the predominate language is Spanish.

The girl behind the register no comprende
until he Spik in Glyph.

The soldiers: Alurista, Lalo Delgado, Ricardo Sanchez,
insisted this would happen.

But most of us didn’t listen,
and took the low road.

Ye of little faith reap small rewards.
Behold how brown, Texas has become.

4 Comments:

At 9:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My childhood was lived en el Valle and to me Texas was very Brown. I grew up segregated - across the tracks. When I moved to California la Raza would look down on me because my Spanish was good y lo peor my Texas accent was funny. That was before bilingual ed. I learned to master two languages on my own. Later when the Chicano movement started, I was a hot commodity, porque era prieta, India and I spoke Spanish and I knew my history. Now what did you say about el chaparro . . .Alurista?

 
At 10:05 PM, Blogger RC said...

Yes,I agree with you.The Texas Valley and places all along the border all the way to California,no doubt,share to same status quo.But, not so further inland you go,and not as widespread as it is now.And it is so all the way East,West and North.Also, remember that the poem is from the perspective of the 1950's where the speaker of the poem has to start from.Those roots can only be understood from those beginnings--which"stranger in a strange land" points to.

 
At 11:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope you don't mind, I added your poem to my poetry blog...

 
At 11:44 AM, Blogger RC said...

Of course not.And thank you.

 

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