Poetry & Fiction

"Ode to Rodney King" Excerpt

Oscar Grant
They shot and killed you.
They murdered you
for being African-American.
No justice for Black and Brown men
in Dr. King's America
where the Tea Partiers,
the Glenn Becks and
the Rush Limbaughs rule.

"Has anybody here seen my old friend, John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He's freed a lot of people but it seems
the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone."

Written on July 8, 2010
By Gloria L. Velásquez
San Luis Obispo, CA

"Uprising" Excerpt

It’s getting harder for my Raza.
Costa Mesa mayor cracking down on illegals.
Minutemen Projects praising his work.
Migra Reform Bills boasting of a new Berlin Wall
“to protect or shoot them dead.”

It’s getting harder for my Raza.
Day laborers hunted down in Los Angeles.
Nine arrested in Orange outside a Home Depot
While Jim Gilchrest cries, “Alleluia, alleluia.”

It’s getting harder for my Raza.
Pete Wilson Politics Resurrected.
Border Battles Reinvented
“to protect or shoot them dead.”

Written on March 8, 2006
Gloria L. Velásquez
San Luis Obispo, CalifAztlán

"Song of Rosa" Excerpt

Eres mi madre.
You are my mother
hoeing sugarbeets all day long
in the fields of northern Colorado.

Rosa Parks
Eres mi abuela.
You are my grandmother
crossing the demon river with her children
refusing to learn the language of the colonizer.

Rosa Parks
Eres la mujer fronteriza
You are the border woman
enslaved in sweatshops and cantinas
to feed your hungry children.

Written on October 25, 2005
Gloria L. Velásquez
Performed for Black History Month in 2006

"Dare to Dream" Excerpt

Dare to dream as I have done
From the Farmworker Fields
of Colorado
To Stanford University
From days of government staples
Food stamps
No Mexicans Allowed Signs
To United Farmworker Strikes
Anti-Vietnam War Rallies
Hoover Tower Protests
And "the Times They are a Changin.."

Dare to Dream
Dare to shout out loud
I can change the World.

Written on October 25, 2005
Gloria L. Velásquez
Performed for Black History Month in 2006