so the bus ride to the university is one hour long and i listen to pandora. lately, i've been listening to a lot of mariachi music and other mexican music. mostly mariachi. but today a song came on, and i knew the lyrics cause my dad used to play it a lot when i was little. its from the late eighties. i was born in the mid nineties.
anyway, the song is called "los hijos de hernandez", which translates in english to "the sons of hernandez".
and it begins with someone calling out names in the military.
"smith."
and they say "sir." basically as saying that they are present and accounted for.
and so they say "garcia"
"lopez"
and when they get to "hernandez", everyone replies, "missing in action."
and the song begins. and its basically about a man who was visiting mexico, and he has papers now, became a citizen. but the border patrol officer stops him and asks him to let him see his papers. so hernandez does this and as the officer checks everything, he mutters, "with all these immigrants some of us real americans can't find jobs."
and so hernandez gets mad and (like a badass mexican) tells the officer, "that thing you just muttered is actually true. many of us latinamericans have taken the spots of many north americans. you know why? because we work hard, and we don't back down even when our lives are put on the line. they've thrown us on the front lines of the battle field because we know how to fight."
the whole time i was like "preach brother!" ahaha.
so he continues his little monologue in the song, "my kids were born here (the US), and they had to endure prejudice and discrimination against them. and when their country called for them (the US), they left their hearts out on the battle ground. funny how no one complained when my son signed hernandez on his application when he enlisted for the army to defend your rights. perhaps he took the spot some white kid was supposed to have and no one complained there."
and this amazing speech still continues with, "so if you see my name on the payroll, in spanish, with disdain, just remember you overlooked that same last name when my sons name was on a missing in action list." and by now this guy got to the point of yelling cause the emotion got him and there are tears streaming down his face.
so finally, the officer's expression softens and he tells hernandez, "you can cross the border this and all the time you wish, you have way more balls than i do."
it got me super emotional.
if i were hernandez, i would be like "move out of my way, bitch. i am an american citizen."
i would not take that kind of shit if i had a son who gave his life for this country and i was getting questioned like a common criminal. this is why i sometimes hate the united states. why can't we all just love each other and be friends?
i want to be a civil rights activist and protest for things like this.
it disgusts me that in the twenty-first century my people (all minorities) don't have the same rights as a white american.
just horrible.
in the words of the genius, mlk, "And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
-clary xx
