Dear friends against the people,

 

 

I am from the stories of the past

Compiled into the present.

Chicana they call me.

From the hills of Chihuahua and Jalisco.

From the instability of war-torn Central America.

El Salvadoreña y Mexicana

Las dos razas unidas in me.

From the land of the free… or so they say

From the American Dream that always seems at reach

Yet is so far away.

With the constant reminder that my family came here for a better life

To escape the strife.

 

I am from the tales of a land I do not know to call my home.

Neither here nor there

Bound to no land but my heart.

But it all seems so far apart.

From the echoes of the Dreamers that still ring in my ear

Yet I know it's not very clear.

 

For those who sacrificed it all.

Those who crossed to “el otro lado”.

Those who did not make it.

 

You see,

We live in a  time

Where it feels like a crime

To call myself a “Latina”.

Hell,

My president hates me

He says we are rapists” and “drug dealers”.

 

But, I have a word for you.

 

Call us names.

Spew your hate.

But know that this not our fate.

Build a wall.

Make it tall.

Do it all.

 

You call us “aliens”.

As if you own the earth

With your man-made borders.

As if the lines you draw on a map

Justify taking what is ours.

But Remember,

This land was never yours.

You stand on the ground of our ancestors,

Our lovely predecessors.

 

Our anthem is “Sí se puede”,

The three words of my people

In triumph alike.

 

Because we know what we are capable of doing.

 

And well, the truth is

I know that my work is not done

That the game has just begun

That the battle has not been won.

 

And you, my friend, have yet to see

What ‘la Raza’ can truly be.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

La Raza (by Arely Lopez)