Stupid Aztlan
(for Lalo Delgado)

How are you doing?
Same as usual- That bad huh?
Jodido per me aguanto-
The National Council of La Raza
has outlawed pin-striped zoot-suits and chains
can’t be twirled among
the campesinos, the Olmecs, and Zapatistas,
down these mean streets
I am no longer blessed and I must confess
to spend the next 100 years
in solitary confinement singing
De Colores and reading
The Marilyn Monroe Doctrine of 1823
in the dim light of that house on Mango street,
all I need is a loose woman
to keep me company, unless
the Mexican Medea chooses
to be my lover,
we should make La Llorona
the patron saint of Xicanos
for all the tears we have shed
in vain-

Stupid Aztlan
How are the fantasmas
at the Sleepy Lagoon and Laguna Park?
Have all the ghosts gathered
at the Silver Dollar Saloon for margaritas & flaming Dr. Peppers
even though
La MECha has been blown out?
Smoky civil rights riots that
no amount of burning sage can smudge clean-
How many more murals, songs, poems, stories
do we stain with our blood soaked fingers
before las maquilas close down
and murders end?
Ni Una Mas!

Stupid Aztlan
How can Xicanos stand the chicanery
of Proposition 13, Proposition 21, Proposition 187,
Every Child Left Behind,
3 strikes you’re out!
What is this? Pinche beisbol?!
The 20,000 young souls lost in
brown feuds over black tar heroin-
the berets are now bloody and no longer brown,
the color of ignorance is green,
because no matter how many beer cans
a lowrider ranfla jumps, las habichuelas
ya no llenan y a Cantinflas
y La India Maria, y hasta
Tin Tan
les mocharon la nariz
y cortaron las orejas,
sent them back to the village
as an example of Los Pinchis Rinchis cruelty-
F- You Gringo!

Stupid Aztlan
The Nahuatl inside us is ready
to burst and live through our nagual,
our wounds and words are worlds-
las palabras que hablan?
Que dicen de Mexicanos?
Xicanos- Me estan chingando!
with Wal-marts to be built
in the shadows of Teotihuacan, so
the Sun and Moon can weep
24 hours a day del calendario Azteca
and we can buy buñelos y chocolate Abuelita
at tres en la mañana
en el Cinco de Mayo-
Our machetes are dull, blunted
on the skulls of coyotes en los mercados,
while we crossed over here-
Stupid America crossed over there
in a manifestation of Manifest Destiny
porque el Señor McDonalds y Hilfiger
mira,
pagaron muy bien!

Stupid Aztlan!
I have carved my Christ-figures
out of hueso pudrido and Jesus
crawled down from the cross
cansado de nuestros llantos,
“Dile al Xicano que me cante
una cancion nueva.”
because we are slowly sinking
entre Los 7 Mares
ayuda me Jose Alfredo!
Or should I pray to Saint Juan Diego?
Dicen los Italianos que es santo!
Or the 3 wise men- Sancho, Pancho, and Cheech?
For the culture vultures
to fuel their fires and swallow our eyes
in rustic contemporary Toltec,
Ni Don Juan, Ni Don Genaro nos
salvara Carlos!
Que Quetzalquatl los bendige
y que Santana cante su canción
Tex-Mex-Taco Cabana-Rap-Rock-Fuzion
Salsa and chips and taco Tuesdays
with extra chipotle sauce please,
hurry dear George Lopez is starting
you member?
right now, right now-
Fight it eh! Fight it!
The children love their Target bought
Cholo-hip hop clothes porque
pachuco is in style this season,
the bean is Atkins diet right,
and La Macarena sounds nothing
like La Malagueña!

Stupid Aztlan!
Our voices are loud but cluttered,
everyone trying to speak at once-
Queremos cambio sin cambiar
we want to be safe and have others
die for us,
when so many have died already,
a gusto sin agonía
y Xicanos sin batallar,
lazy Mexicans?
No!

Stupid Aztlan!
En el nombre del padre, el hijo, y Pedro Infante,
O mejor,
en el nombre del Inca, del Maya, y Mexica/Tolteca
recemos por nosotros los ignorantes
Nosotros los Pobres y Ustedes los Ricos
los pecadores contra Xicanos,
which our brown skin will attest to
we are not foreigners, we are not immigrants
we are not illegal aliens, wetbacks,
cruzados, mojados, ilegales
We are native- nativos por siglos
antes de los gabachos!
We are Huichol, Yaqui, Tara humará, Azteca,
El Tonal- The Smoky Mirror-
We are Juan Cortina, Joaquín Murrieta, Gregorio Cortez
We are Frida Calo, Diego Rivera, Garcia-Lorca, Neruda,
Ruben Salazar, Dolores Huerta, Ricardo Sanchez,
Dense Chávez, Sandra Cisneros, Cesar Chávez,
Lalo Delgado!
We Are Aztlan
and we are NOT stupid!

Unless we choose to be…

                                                                                                            -Ray Ramos