YO

 Yo  tambien tengo derecho de andar entre las estrellas.

I too have the right to walk among the stars.

Yo tambien tengo derecho de cantar de dioses y espirutos  benditos.

I too have the right to exclaim about my gods and blessed spirits.

Yo tambien puedo andar en huipiles  bordados, huaraches y en mis trensas crusadas.

I too can walk in my embroidered blouses, sandles and with braided hair.

Porque YO tambien vengo de tierra sagrada y alli tengo mis raices.

Because I also come from sacred grounds and my roots are there.

 

Orgullo no tiene fronteras

Pride has no bounderies

Orgullo ilumine los caminos del hombre

Pride illuminates the paths of man

Nos sostiene como el pan y el vino

It sustains us like bread and wine

Nos lleva con fuerza adelante

It takes us with strength forward.

Women, Proud, Intelligent and Free

 

 

I am Latina

Given birth with the sweat and screams of another.

I am Latina

Through my veins flows the blood of Boriqua  and Maya

I am Latina

With passions hot like the August sun,

Yet at times as cold as the winter snow.

I am Latina

Diverse in my talents

Artist, teacher, scientist, mother

I am Latina

Strong and full breasted to nurse future nations

I am Latina

Proud, Intelligent and Free

 

I am a Black woman

The Tigress and the Nile are my life's blood

I am a Black woman

Civilizations were created in me

I am a Black woman

Inner strengths and determination are my  middle name

I am a Black woman

I am the color of obsidian, caramel and cream

I am a Black woman

Proud, Intelligent and Free

 

I am a White woman

The cornerstone of home and hearth

I am a White woman

An unending source of energy

I am a White woman

Giving and taking like the wondrous sea

I am a White woman

Bending like the willow, yet as steadfast as the oak

I am a White woman

Proud, Intelligent and Free

 

I am an Asian woman

Once silent, docile and meek

Now endowed with innumerable strengths

I am an Asian woman

Never given the keys to my own destiny

Now I am the maker of locks

I am an Asian woman

Ever striving for attain my endless dreams

I am an Asian woman

Resilient, patient, observant

I am an Asian woman

Proud, Intelligent and Free

 

We are women

Mothers of all eternity

We are women

With wills of iron and steel

We are women

Compassion and understanding are part of out souls

We are women

Destined to grow, to learn and to lead

We are women

Proud, Intelligent and Free.



La Revolucionaria

     The shuttered window lay open welcoming in the suns' early amber glow.  Golden streams reflected off the brass bed which seemed to dominate her dark and dreary abode.  The room had a few pieces of wooden furniture as well which did not match. One small chair claimed a far corner and a triple mirrored vanity or coqueta reflected the full length of the metal bed.  The early morning also brought a hot, dry breeze which danced with the few remaining remnants of the lace curtain that covered the window like a spiders' web.

   She sat there on the edge of her bed with her back against the glimmering metal of that private domain.  Her tattered and soiled petticoat, with its many pleats and tucks and its opalescent river of tiny mother of pearl buttons seemed transformed into its pristine newness in this blessing of new light.  Her shoulders were broad, yet slender and they were a misconception of her frailty.  The straightness of her back was a testament to her inner strength.  Long and dark her now unbraided hair cascaded down her skin which was the color of Mexican clay. The tendrils caressed her with their own special embrace.  The partially unbuttoned camisole meandered around her dark nipples revealing a small round scar over her left breast, a momento from a former lover. 

   Under her second hand finery she did not wear the leather huarachas of her indigenous heritage, but the worn out and tired boots of a dead Federale which still had the remains of both horse excrement and human blood.  She lay there in all her womanliness, a true 'Mujer del Tiempo", a Juarista to death, a campecina by birth, a soldier by day and anyones' lover by night.

Kindred Spirits

Face to face they sit, a woman staring into the eyes of her Dog Man

She has become like putty in his hands.
Is it true love? Or is it only hypnotism?

There is an edge.

There is a line.

A wild and hungry look creeps into otherwise sane pupils.

Everyone is part human and part beast, but we do not always reveal our claws.

We talk without speaking.

We act without thinking.

The only sound here is of two souls engaging.

It is a primal noise.

SHE WOLF

 

 

It is a She-wolf night.

It is a mental prowl.

She chants, she smokes, she burns the enchanted grasses.

She sits howling at the empty sky and her empty lair.

Her head is high and proud

Not letting in the lone wolves of the plains

              or the ones with all energies spent.

She seeks her equal.

One who is howling at the same empty sky with the same

              empty lair.

She howls till her throat is dry.

But her energies never end

She awaits the full moon.

She will wait for her Man-wolf.

They will do the dance of eternity.

The dance of eternal youth and fulfillment.

 

                    

Indigenous Woman

Upon my birth I was wrapped in buckskins,

linen or in my mothers' arms.

I was carried in a papoose, in a rebozo or on the hip.

I sang with the birds

and swam with the fish.

I ran with the wind blowing through my long hair

and dreamed under many stars...

 

I was able to fight or make love with equal ease and energy.

I lived to be free and died when it was denied to me.

I worked harder than many men,

Yet stepped softer than a thousand butterflies.

I gave birth working the fields

of yucca and maize

And my child suckled at my breast as I planted

each new crop.

My energies were everlasting.

My dreams were for all eternities.

Until they came on horseback.......

 

The creative spirit has no limits. It is free to breath on its own., to soar to its boundless heights and reach its own heavens. It is not held back by the meritocracy of man nor of his hypocritical attitudes. It makes its’ own destiny. It is what it is, a unique entity.

Its vision is fathomless as the galaxies in space. Colors are clearer, purer not tainted from or with negative influences. Here the soul is conjoined with the spirit creating a new and different union. Here the inner eye is the outer and the outer is the inner, perceiving all. It is beyond purity it is new life itself. The artist is as the artist was and the artist will be forever.