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1. "Invocación al Sol" by Maria del Carmen Cifuentes
2. "The Ghost Dance" by Hedy Trevino
3. "I Am From Two Different Homes" by Itzie Alarcón
4. "La regla de los ladrones / The Law of Thieves" by Avotcjia
5. "Scavenger Dreams" by Jeanette Iskat de Aldana
6. "Hierba Loca: The Children of Aztlan" by Lorenzo Herrerra y Lozano
7. "Three-Ten to Tule" (Mixtek, Spanish, English) by Octaviano Merecias-Cuevaso


1. "Invocación al Sol" by Maria del Carmen Cifuentes

invocación al sol

arizona-coral, the rocks, tenacious, we face uplifted toward our ancestors’ spirits;
amethyst, the furled ravines, deepened witness of our grounded stance;
brown, the wrinkled earthen flesh, crackling under solar touch.

tonatiuh, we are yours
ya'áí, we are yours
taawa, we are yours
inya, we are yours
somos hijos del sol

crispened ivory, the strains of our history herniated by stampedes in the pursuit of—
somber, the starred manta upon our shoulders settles to ease the rupturing borders;
musky, the prominence of sweat evaporates in the drought of others.

than, tuyos somos
‘anya, tuyos somos
tavaci, tuyos somos
gui, tuyos somos
we are children of the sun

from the hours gardening their dreams, green, my nopal palms;
and magenta, now, its flowering, resolute, along my vessels overflows:
my soul shall be released from the venom their infection seeks to mold.

yaqui, ndikandii, shá, giizis, kìsiz, k’in, anchü, inti…
somos tuyos, somos tuyos

¡cuidado! this prickly pear heart in my grasp resounds—
it bursts the bounds of penned thorns, consumes the irons branding.
my children vein this arid terrain in the succulence of mixed languages;
through us, this maize land of bronze breathes;
red as the clay, golden as the sun we are nascent.



Sun invoked in Nahuatl, Western Apache, Hopi, Maricopa, Tewa, Mohave, Ute, Triqui, Taa’a, Mixteco, Navajo, Ojibwe, Algonquin, Maya, Mapuche, Kichwa…


2. "The Ghost Dance" by Hedy Trevino

THE GHOST DANCE

By Hedy Trevino

Boots at the door, ya vienen por allí. With baton in hand the sound of metal crashed thru the door. Ya vienen for allí. But we fear not the tempest for we know this journey well a long long time ago as we stood by the shore and we welcomed our own destiny in 1519 the year of reed 1 remember, but here we are, look, here we are, forever more.

There by the door where you keep your memories at the ready is the little bag con tierra santa that abuelo gathered before you were born combined with cornmeal from the milpa he tended with such care. Can you hear the rustling of the corn like a symphony in the air guiding you and lifting you like a feather in the air. We are the children of the ghost dance, we are here, we are here. A new nation has risen we are the prophesy of the ghost dance fulfil

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