http://amaejournal.utsa.edu ISSN: 2377-9187 http://amaejournal.utsa.edu/ Sanchez Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2018, Volume 12, Issue 3 191 Canyon City By Irene Sanchez For the students of Azusa, CA Driving through the canyon city Find Botanicas and Barber shops Mercados and mother’s pushing strollers Mothers pushing strollers down streets Named for a citrus past Schools in a city named for a rancho A rancho owned by Dalton a man who sided With the Mexicans during the Mexican American War Mexican American War What remains today is a romanticized history But what was erased is the fact that the San Gabriel Valley is indigenous land Indigenous land There are spirits that still echo through these canyons These canyons These mountains I breath the crisp morning air A tardy bell rings As I watch students make their way Finding a way Wondering why they are here after traveling Canyon City Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2018, Volume 12, Issue 3 192 Many roads Many roads lead to a classroom They enter holding back a rumble in their bellies Too many painful nights Painful nights They don’t want to remember Nights full of stars they can’t even see the magic They are made of Because in the morning They sit where it has been erased, degraded, left out of The curriculum The curriculum the other teachers say it’s too advanced Too much Too real Too challenging Because it sounds too much like the truth They call it un-American But this was Mexico once This was Mexico once I tell them And they don’t believe me You only believe what you see And so they tell me how the cops stopped them The other night, How another has slept in a car How another has been locked up Beat up Told they are good for nothing No good Mexicans Latinos Chicanos Brown Brown They tell me Sanchez Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2018, Volume 12, Issue 3 193 You get stopped around here for looking suspicious For looking like you don’t belong Belong where? Read for yourself in these books These books were banned in Arizona Books are still banned in this country Because they don’t want you to know The truth about yourself and where you come from If you tell a people they are inferior long enough they Begin to believe it Listen close as darkness falls The spirits begin to rattle their bones Hear them echo through the canyon As helicopters loom overhead Shining light you run to darkness as the palm trees sway Listen to the song they are teaching you A song that says no more running away from the truth No more lies No more foreign miners tax No more celebrating lynchings of Mexicans Or hangman trees No more Mexican schools No more Bracero Program No more Mexicans can only swim on Mondays Because they empty the dirty water So the White people can swim on Tuesday No more unequal schools No more draft to Vietnam No more racial profiling, school to prison pipeline, or police brutality No more deportations No more ICE No more calling us names No more calling us animals No more putting our children in cages But mostly No more racist counselors or teachers telling you No No you can’t go to college or take this class About yourself No more go back to Mexico Canyon City Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2018, Volume 12, Issue 3 194 No more go back to where you came from No more go back to where you came from No more stay where you are supposed to be Here Right here where we tell you you’re supposed to be Tell them where you’re from Tell them you are brown Tell them you are beautiful Tell them you are a smoking mirror revealing truth Tell them you are flint and that means your words will cut anyone Who tries to tell you are anything but brilliant Tell them you are the dreams of your ancestors and how their spirits Became butterflies who Flew to the night sky and became the stars They watch over you Tell them who you are And let the canyons echo your name