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!
