Hustling

by Claudia Lara

Hustling, every day on every level

sometimes it feels the only way out is to make a deal with the devil.

Get your own and leave your people behind,

Turn your head and pretend that you’re blind.

But apathy is a characteristic unknown to me

It’s not a part of the person I strive to be.

So I hustle every day to get ahead

To be student, organizer, worker

And still… provide my family with some bread

I hustle every day to get ahead

Trying to ignore the opposition

And the words that they said

They spit ignorance, and like that… hatred is spread

But I hustle to keep my head high

And tell myself, SI SE PUEDE! instead

Pues…

They colonize, oppress and setup their slave trade

and now they tell us that we’ve OVERSTAYED?

Passing their racist laws to make my people afraid

Asking them to abandon the lives that they’ve made

Like aliens we are being portrayed

and by the place we call our country

…easily betrayed.

Yeah, let me tell you it gets hard sometimes

I don’t qualify for this thing…financial aid

the main reason why my dream has been delayed

But I didn’t know this in the first grade

when they tracked me as “gifted” and said

YOU CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE.

Y yo, tan ignorante les crei.

And well, now what?

I’ve diligently obeyed

Honors, APs, straight A’s

I’ll be graduating soon with a B.A. in psychology

No job, tough life, no apology

But here’s a little secret you may not know

IT IS WITHIN OUR POWER TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO

What must I say for you to react?

To get up and make an impact…

It’s been 10 years of struggle

how ‘bout, we pass the DREAM Act? NOW!