Documented

I don’t know if I should talk about this. We’ve always been taught to keep it a secret, right?
To not tell anybody. Ever.
Mexicano? Pues sí, pero… ya ni sé qué significa.
I love telling stories, but… I can’t even tell my own.

Pero sabes que? The only papers we need are the ones to write our stories.
This is our home too.

Fuck it

Supposed to break the cycle, but the only thing we’re breaking is our backs, a story left without a title
Carry the weight of an imaginary world: the American dream, as seen on TV, behind the walls
We only watch it through the window, waiting for the day, looking for the way not to be the prey
Cause we know
The only thing we’re free to do is leave. A liberty to fear the white man, don’t be perceived
Unrepresented. Disoriented, either separated or intimidated, frustrated

Pero ya es hora que nuestra historia y nuestras voces…
              … estén documentadas.

¡Dale!

Don’t even know where to start. A lot of us didn’t even know when we had to depart, “get in the car”
To the promised land, holding each other’s hands
But we did not see that we stood on quicksand

Didn’t understand we had escaped, that our parents were afraid
That one day, it’d be a decade later, hiding away
From raids, betrayed, our hope decayed, papers delayed, unable to get paid, portrayed

As a criminal. Liminal. The words are not subliminal
An immigrant without a fingerprint, an alien without a status, yeah
The political apparatus wants to ban us
Treat us as if they don’t need us in the U.S.

A lie. A nation. But we have to call it alienation
We love, we work, we serve. We die for this country
But not allowed to live in it?

A la chingada, someone’s gotta put it bluntly

Supposed to break the cycle, but the only thing we’re breaking is our backs, a story left without a title
Carry the weight of another broken promise: the American dream, as seen on TV, what did we miss?
We have to watch out through the window, laboring to stay the fuck out of the way
Praying every day not to be the prey. Cause we know
One man voted in—so millions of people voted out.
No mames

And don’t give me the bullshit of “just come in the right way”
You think we had fucking years to just sit and wait?

There’re times I’m able to forget my future is unstable
To believe in what I do, may be the fable of the fool
But I still visualize a time, and it’ll catch me by surprise
When I am sympathized? Romanticized? No, legitimized!

Nostalgia makes me visit my old home in Mexico. I travel on google maps
I ask myself, what would’ve been? But deep within, what I know
Is that I let go and it let go of me

Try to wipe my tears, but my eyes are dry
Gotta find a way to send more paper home, but will I ever reap what I’ve sown?
And I know I’m not alone when I say
I didn’t choose to be brought here, but I’m choosing to stay

Supposed to break the cycle, but the only thing we’re breaking is our backs, a story left without a title
We carry the weight of an unwritten tragedy: the American dream, as seen on TV… that’s history
They say the wall was never finished, but I see the truth, unusual and cruel, working families into custody. Call it a “detention center”

But I see cages.
And I see children.
Put that shit on the record, man, that’s why I’m writing these pages.

Pero bueno, ya estamos aquí, ¿verdad? Ya no hay de otra.
Llegamos aquí to stay, mi gente. We’ve earned our place. We build it every day, todos los días. Cansados, pero pues… no hemos terminado.

Yo, la verdad, tuve bastante suerte, y estoy bien agradecido
Y no es que sea fuerte, pero el dolor algo me ha traído
Porque vengo convencido, que esto es merecido

Ya sé, ya sé… me van a decir que el único papel
que necesito, es el blanco de mi piel
¡Pero ni que fuera ciudadanía!
Ahí les va la mía

No me acuerdo cuando fue que me di cuenta que la vida iba a ser más difícil
Yo pensaba que el trabajo duro daba futuro seguro
Pero si algo el pasado me ha demostrado
La mejor manera de hacer a dios reír en tener un plan-

-tados los pies, pero mucho hemos batallado. Con la lana, con la casa, con comida, y eso deja sus heridas y ansiedades. Pero mis padres hace mucho que ya me convencieron que
No hay de otra que echarle a chingazos
Por más que te duela el corazón-

-reír es fácil, con tantas malas noticias, hay que
aceptar que lo único justo es la injusticia
Madrugado y no ayudado, but I gave myself amnesia
Rómpeme mi pride, because ya me puse las pilas
Imagining donde estaría si
no hubiera sido minoría, cuánto
tiempo más me quedaría, what
a pinche gasto de energía
always failing to meet the criteria
esta no es alegoría, no
tendría esta sabiduría, pero tampoco la necesitaría

Pero a la vida le digo “gracias,” y la pendeja me dice “de nada”
Cause if it wasn’t for my situation, yo no tendría tantas metas soñadas
Olvidada, pero cantada. Una ironía encontrada
¡Una comedia bien sazonada!

¡I look back and see, una aventura tras de mi!

Llena de fracasos, de achievements, y de lágrimas
But don’t give me your lástima, I just need community
Porque hay que estar unidos, en los estados unidos
This camino, my destino

Neta, quién sabe dónde voy a acabar, wey.
But I’m gonna go far. Va a ser un buen lugar.
I’ll call it my hogar.
As long as I got my guitar.

Once upon a time, había un oficial del ICE, y tenía detenido a un amigo mío.
Y le dijo, “We’re just doing our job, hombre.”
Y sabes qué le dijo mi amigo?
“Me too, Mr. Officer.”

Damn.

I hope I break the cycle, cause the only thing I’m breaking is my back, a story not without a title
I’ll carry the weight of one more possibility: the American dream, as seen on TV. It’s archetypal

We’re not your
poor
but we are your tired
Inspired masses yearning to breathe free, not to be
Refugees inside our own home
We are the hopeful. Hard workers, with ardor. Not beggars, go-getters
Tempest-tossed to you
Looking up to the wall from within, wonder when we’ll have the path to begin
A mighty people whose pain’s undocumented but

With silent lips, I will cry to explain.

Not just about the wealth we can bring to this place
After all, somebody’s cashing in at the detention gates
It’s about letting la raza openly embrace
The United States

And yeah, maybe I’m paradoxically
blindly propagating it, the very same misguided ideology
That put me in this immigrant predicament. I’m innocent
Or maybe I’m just another instrument

But I guess time will tell
Nuestra historia will dispel
Porque esta no es farewell

Somos thinkers, storytellers, teachers, y artistas.
But we’re also constructores, cocineros, agricultores, perfeccionistas.
Porque lo que más queremos… is to have a home
And call it what it is

Build a future for la familia

That’s the truth that I want for our youth.

Órale, pues. Ya estamos