HECHIZOSPELLS             

                     

                           The RAM No.1
                           March 10, 1969

    Three Days to Go*


  three days to go 
  y luego al chante, 
  to see my son, 
  he's now four years 
  young, not old, to me, 
  for he was born 
  days after i got busted.

  three days to go, 
  qué lucas, pero 
  now they say 
  that Tijerina 
  and César Chávez 
  and Abelardo 
  and other batos 
  are riding herd
  on pinches gringos.

  qué rete bruto that raza now dares 
  to answer back 
  to those cabrones, 
  to those ladrones.

  i've also heard
  of movimiento,
  the shout Chicano
  Chicano POWER,

  viva la huelga 
  viva la raza 
  que vivan Chávez y Tijerina
  y el poeta Lalo Delgado . . .

  it is good to know
  that things might now be different,

  and if so
  i will pick up a gun 
  or a typewriter
  for this cosa called movimiento. 
  i'm ready, raza, to join you, 
  but if you're jiving, 
  i'll burn you back,
  for all us pintos really want freedom, 
  and not just words
  nor fancy jobs . . .

  i mean it 
  when i say 
  i'm ready 
  to do or die 
  for a good reason; 
  i also mean it when i say
  i want the time to know my son;

  and i mean it
  when i say
  that serving raza 
  can be one answer 
  for the reason to my being;

  if we have to burn 
  or shout or sing 
  or act or whatever 
  we have to do 
  to make our freedom real, 
  i am ready, 
  and so are other pintos, 
  but if the movement is a game
  and hucksters are hustling 
  all our people 
  just to make themselves look big 
  or get more money   
  by pimping off the people, 
  then i'm also ready 
  to just go back to criming, 
  to looting and conniving, 
  for a pinto has no future
  in this gringo/sordid world.

  i really hope
  you batos mean it 
  when you speak 
  of revolution
  and you sing of righting wrongs, 
  for this better be the truth; 
  we've been hustled too damn long; 
  ese pinche gringo has ripped, raped, 
  and scavenged all of our land; 
  and if you heavies 
  are truly batos pesados 
  and mean the beautiful words 
  you have spoken, 
  then i, too, shall be your man, 
  i shall wed my mind and soul 
  to la causa de la raza . . . 
  but no need to sweat it out, 
  i'll be there in three more days 
  with a sackful of reasons-almost  
  nine years of prison and hurts 
  and stripes and hungers and loves 
  and hopes for liberation-and i 
  mean to embrace you, raza chicana, 
  and tell you that it's good
  we're finally together 
  to fight our common enemy. 
  i'll trust you, just you trust me,
  and we'll build a new nación. . . .

* also appeared in Selected Poems