Repatriated Dreams
by Jo Anna Mixpe Ley

I am temporarily silenced
Fingers violently point,
disrespecting all sense of sovereignty.
Who will be the next scapegoat to blame?

History shows us how it is all a game.
1930’s-the depression hits
like a sharp pain
from the short hand hoe
and people’s hopes to organize
leads to a one way ticket
to Mexico.

1940’s-No-No boys and their Japanese families,
are forced into camps
as the bracero program ships
Mexicans into the US like animals.
The second world war is over,
people are freed
and deported without an apology.
Operation Wetback, Homeland Security
expendable races, it all sounds the same.

What is the shape of silence?
Does it fit in the small of your neck
or rest on your lips
ready to burst into flames...


"Mexicans Go Home: A Haiku Duet"
by Jo Anna Mixpe Ley and Ruben Guevara

The Great Depression
Work for whites not Mexicans
Go back to your home

Repatriation
Over 1 million leave home
Most were U.S. born

Xenophobia
Packed into buses and trains
Shipped out like cattle

Newspaper bulldogs
Displayed deportation raids
Painting hearts with fear

Families torn up
Hearts and dreams broken in two
Repatriation

It's OK children
We can go to Mexico
But, Dad, I'm born here

Heartbeats of the land
Echoing frustrations from
Children of the sun

Citizenship seized at
Will, but will governments repay
The damage it caused?

Rich ancestral land (s)
Feeding us thousands of years
Borders now control

Economy fails
No one held accountable
Convenient scapegoats

But people persist
Voices creating power
Revolutionize

And people exist
Held by the Loving Embrace
Ancestors heal pain

Ancestors heal pain
Ancestors heal pain


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Updated: 4/22/04