ustxtxb_obs_2008_03_07_50_00021-00000_000.pdf

Photo by Alan Pogue I n proud voices we will sing. So with all due respect to my Mom and her need to fly a flag for her man who fought in some other war, wrap me not in waving rags that gag the wailing of the masses en Acteal. Irlandeses both protestants and catholics their paths plowed under/Lebanon plundered and as the colony crumbles Palestine rumbles, Intifada! I n loud voices we shall sing though the empire is in shambles cantaremos of the nirios mutilados en Irak, Atenco, and Kabul, Rolando en Vieques; yanqui doodle contaminacion. La liberacion de los pueblos, we must sing. I oud and proud cantaremos lift our voice that one collective and united voz must not be stilled. Strong-willed seguiremos cantaremos we must sing, we will sing! Bringing to our gente decente that other realidad. POETRY I BY raulrsalinas LOUD & PROUD n loud voices we must sing. Cantaremos porque .. . Silence means consent. Cantaremos porque… Silence equals death. If i am free to express my ways then what i have to say to this here nation state is, don’t spew me with hate. Don’t play that un-american card with me pard-ner because continentally speaking, i am what i am! No need for nationalistic, Jingoistic, patriotic pap. Remember world war II? “We’re gonna have to slap the dirty little jap, and uncle sam’s the guy who can do it” I n proud voice entonces let me exercise my rights —aboriginal and otherwise– As we grieve one more time for those who gave up the spirit on 9/11 now gone to their heaven. 30 years we’ve been grieving, weaving our tears into spears of struggle. Feel las voces of the poets in the wind! Listen to the singing of artistas on communal walls! See la musica splash rainbows on our souls! I oud and proud i sing my ritmos and rimes in these times of patriotismo gone astray disgusting display bustin out all over town; including the brown. Flying of the flags used to disguise body bags that carried medal of honor winners back to hick towns of coffee-serving refusals & cemetery of heroes burial denials. RAUL R. SALINAS, poet, activist, mentor and proprietor of Austin’s Resistencia bookstore, passed away of liver cancer on Wednesday, February 13, at age 73. This poem, one of Salinas’ last, is from Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience, published in 2007 by Red Salmon Press and Calaca Press. MARCH 7, 2008 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 21