A Prayer for Indigenous América
By Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara

Native people of the Americas
My dear brothers and sisters
You have endured
A brutal colonized history that no one should have
A history that favored beasts of burden to human life
A history of betrayal of cultural and physical genocide
Language silenced by cut tongues
Customs forbidden by hanging
Forced removal from stolen, ancestral lands
Relocated to urban cities
To assimilate
To disintegrate

My beloved querida raza indigena
Your epic history is indelibly etched in genetic blood memory
Your heroic sacred struggle to survive and thrive with dignity
Blows a soft warm wind of renewed strength faith hope
A living legacy of true power

Oh Creator
Aho Mitakuye Oyasin
To all relations
Tlazokamati
Gracias
Thank you
I honor you
As I grieve
With grateful tears

Aho


"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