ALIENS IN OUR LAND

Amado L. Picardal

 With a sword in one hand

 and a cross in the other

 the Spanish Conquistador

 landed on our shore.

 He preached about the white god

 and grabbed our land

 and named it after his king.

 And thus we became pious serfs

 with Iberian names

 and customs.

 We learned to speak his tongue,

 worship his god, venerate his saints

 and celebrate his fiestas.

When we fought for independence

 the Yankee imperialist landed on our shore.

 With a gun on one hand

 and a book on the other

 he preached about democracy

 and grabbed our land

 claiming this was

 his manifest destiny.

 then he proceeded

   to mold our soul

 into his own image and likeness.

 And thus we learned to

 sing his songs, drink his coke,

 eat his hamburger, wear his Levi's,

 and dream about his white Christmas.

 Even our daily news, love letters, poems

 and history are written in his tongue.

 he gave us independence

 after making us dependent on him.   

We are a brown race

 with  white gods

 and a whitened soul.

 We are aliens

 in our own land,

 hostaged by our past.