Corky

(A tribute to Revolutionary Chicano Activist Rodolfo Corky Gonzales, June 18, 1928 - April 12, 2005)
By Joe Navarro

Corky had a vision
Before most of us could see
He took off the rosy red colored glasses
That they gave him in school
His eyesight was 20/20 now
Not for what was obviously evident,
Nor what was shown

Ese vato sabía mucho
Vio la verdad
He saw the ugliness
Underneath the façade
He discovered the myth
Of the two party system...
Being a two headed hydra
Joined at the base of the neck

He found that Chicanas and Chicanos
Were meat for the political machine
He realized that Chicanos
Were cannon fodder
For the gringo's imperialist wars
He excavated our history
From the depths of colonial lies
He exposed the naked face
Of oppression

Nuestro carnal, Corky
Questioned history
And challenged the future
He saw the bare truth
Of imperialism
And showed it
To the world

Sabía que la gente chicana
Tiene un lugar especial
En el mundo
He knew that we weren't
Naturally born as farmworkers,
Laborers, maids, dishwashers
And second-class citizens

He found out that we were
Descendents of great civilizations
Y que somos herederos
De las tradiciones
De la gente que estaba aquí
Desde el principio del tiempo
We didn't come to America
America came to us
He boldly declared to a closed world
Trying to pry it open

Flinging social paradigms
Like arrows into the belly
Of the mightiest beast on earth
From the inside
...Talking about imperialism
Capitalism, exploitation and oppression
And the most frightening concept of all
Self-determination
Inspiring an entire generation
To imagine a Chicana/o nation
Redefining the foreigners
...Inciting the largest tribe
In this hemisphere
To rise up and demand its land

From boxer to philosopher of liberation
Nuestro carnal, Corky
Was like an alarm clock
Crowing the gritos of
La revolución
En la lucha para
La liberación de Aztlán

High from the Rockies
Las cordilleras de las Americas
He declared to the four directions
Que, ¡Yo Soy Joaquín!
An allusion to a rebel
Contra los expansionistas
Un guerrillero que luchó
Por la justicia
Por que él también sufrió
Bajo de la mano de la injusticia yanqui

¡Yo Soy Joaquín!
Was a declaration for justice
A cry for freedom
A recognition of la raza
La gente indígena de Aztlán

Nuestro carnal, Corky
Knew that he had to organize
A Crusade for Justice...
Movilizar la gente para luchar
Por la dignidad
Por la humanidad
Por la igualdad y
Por una mejor sociedad

Nuestro carnal became the impetus for
El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán
Mobilizing minds, spirits and bodies
Theory -- action -- social change
La Raza Unida
Nuestro carnal, Corky knew...

Yo Soy Joaquín

by Corky Gonzales 

Yo soy Joaquín,
perdido en un mundo de confusión:
I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion,
caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,
confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes,
suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society.
My fathers have lost the economic battle
and won the struggle of cultural survival.
And now! I must choose between the paradox of
victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger,
or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis,
sterilization of the soul and a full stomach.
Yes, I have come a long way to nowhere,
unwillingly dragged by that monstrous, technical,
industrial giant called Progress and Anglo success....
I look at myself.
I watch my brothers.
I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate.
I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life --
MY OWN PEOPLE . . .
La raza!
Méjicano!
Español!
Latino!
Chicano!
Or whatever I call myself,
I look the same
I feel the same
I cry
And
Sing the same.
I am the masses of my people and
I refuse to be absorbed.
I am Joaquín.
The odds are great
But my spirit is strong,
My faith unbreakable,
My blood is pure.
I am Aztec prince and Christian Christ.
I SHALL ENDURE!
I WILL ENDURE!