at the inauguration of the 
   Ricardo Sánchez Papers
   Leland Stanford, Jr. University
   March 24, 1993

   Freedom Wind
   © 1993 by Phil Duran

   Leland Stanford, Jr. died on foreign soil
   and in the restlessness of troubled sleep back home 
           a dream was born
   & soon an endless freedom wind began to blow
   from the tall Palo Alto
           to the sacred Sierra de la Santa Cruz
   from the dark Sierra Morena
           to the mean Sierra del Monte Diablo

   that wind
   swept down into the dark valleys
   & neglected shadows of American life,
   embracing the "children of California"
   & a restless Chicano/Mestizo nation
   twice born in the pain of conquest
   still surviving on California soil
   because pueblo voices
   never ceased to speak 
   & always sought 
           & sometimes felt
   that wind

   then 
   a major voice 
           once bound, now free
   was heard,
   singing of the beauty
   of the wandering people of Aztlán

   this ground has shaken
   and it will shake again
           but never to be sold
   the voice, the papers of Ricardo Sánchez 
   found a shelter here
   the Stanford dream continues its perpetual journey
   to protect Chicano history, now 145 years old

   so
   from prominent/permanent academic peaks
           & the halls of Stanford scholarship
   "Die Luft der Freiheit Weht"
           "Die Luft der Freiheit Weht"
   let the wind of freedom blow
   and blow & grow & grow...