Sacrificio & When We Speak
When we speak our languages, we claim our culture; we claim what’s ours, and like our ancestors, when we speak, there’s power.
When we speak our languages, we claim our culture; we claim what’s ours, and like our ancestors, when we speak, there’s power.
Nothing could hurt me, I got married to a man I didn’t know and certainly didn’t love.
The songs of ayer won’t ever fade, /
Your guitar’s strings I strum, /
And your old records still play. /
se volvió hacia mí y, /
con ojos trasnochados /
y una cara como la mía, /
me devolvió la llamada /
My barrio allowed me to see the dark side of cholo culture /
but it also taught me the proud side of our gente /
the language of the pachuco, órale! /
The dreams will get worse, and you will never sleep very well. Actually, you’ll get to a point where you won’t sleep at all. This kind of mal-sueño really will kill you.
los alfas visten de rosa, /
como Juanga, como Walter /
adornados con lentejuelas /
con flores y mariposas, /
Since she couldn’t dream about life, she decided to spend time imagining her death.
Ulibarri offers a model for reading other Latinx literature in the context of rising immigrant detentions. Through the lenses of bio- and necro-politics, she explores who dies, socially, politically, and economically as well as bodily so that others may live and thrive.
I have heard that seeing a shadowy figure with a hat is demonic. However, I would counter that it took place in Juarez and it could be a ghost of a Mexican Revolutionary.