Justicia
Adriana Avalos
My culture
My city
My life
I said
What do you love about your culture
Because lately it’s feeling like
All you wanna do is take mine
Gentrification of a culture so sick
I can’t even speak on it
My name
You pronounced it wrong
Then kicked me out of my house
You got taco Tuesdays
And take trips to Mexico
Pronounce it right
México
So otra vez
I’ma tell you again
Hoops so big
And liner so thick
I speak my tongues
And love my family
How do you kick us out a home
But force us in a cage
Tellin’ our kids this is their future
My school shouldn’t be
A pathway to prison
So my face is glass
And my guts are glitter
I fight with my community
And spit ode to oppressor
Hair so thick
And body so tired
I am a woman
A woman of culture
A woman of nature
A creation of we came here for a better place
Instead we got prejudice & get the fuck off my land
Dimé por que
I gotta fight to be in the place I belong
I get dirty looks and karens commenting
Told my people we’re rapists
When you’re the one who created mexican
Colonized a culture
Colonized a community
Colonized a future
And blamed it on us
My parents made it here
But what about our family
Fighting for better lives
Only for you to threaten to take theirs away
Calling me pendeja for speaking truth
Yet you get president for spreading lies
The only reason my words flow
Is because they know their meaning
I speak because i’m aware of what i'm saying
And that is viva la raza
And pride in being Chicana
You want to be us so bad
But not the struggles that come with it
You want our culture
But can’t figure out what it means
Comida del patrimonio
Y carros del cielo
64 impala
Y mi papa in his 70s chevelle
Our Brown pride is too beautiful to be seen as “illegal aliens”
I'm not from outer space
I'm from the same soil you were made from
But my people created food out of it
And you built walls to keep us away from it
Justicia para mi gente
Because you took credit for our home
Justicia para mi
Because you took what means most
Some days I can’t imagine waking up
Because I’m so scared of what might happen next
I screamed chicanisma
But you heard white women
So while my sisters and almost mothers
Are being sterilized without knowing
And being sprayed with windex
Since we’re so disgusting
I keep writing
And I won't stop
Because no matter how hard you break me
And how much I bleed
I am earth
And I will show you my nature.
Justicia!
