"Raices" and "Multicultural Education for Our Nation"

I recently shared two poems that I wrote a couple years back at UC Berkeley's Youth Empowerment Program 3rd Annual Immigrant Youth Art & Poetry Exhibit.

The first poem titled, "Raices," is a poem that I wrote and shared at my Columbia graduation in the spring of 2011. The second poem titled, "Multicultural Education for Our Nation," is a poem that I wrote in the fall of 2012 to share with my cohorts during my graduate program at the Kalmanovitz School of Education at Saint Mary's College of California.
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Raices


Patria Grande

Esperanza de todos

Yo soy Latino and I made it

Pride is more than appropriate

Derived out of an inevitable struggle

 Roots deeply grounded in the history of our people

A history that started long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492

A history that is deeply embedded in the soil that provides us with the sustenance of life—We have

learned of the armed strife and our generation has lived through the weaponless strife of the mind

Pa’lante, Siempre pa’lante

Despierta-Rise

Dig the roots out of the ground

Refresh the memory

Gently brush the dirt off

Feel the natural shape and architecture

Caress every imperfection

Let your soul take in the moment

Transcend time and become one with the organ of the Pan-American tree

Notice the differences

Notice the similarities

Diversity is our identity

Embrace its beautiful colors

I refuse to be an abstract entity that denies the inextricable connection between our pan-American

roots—there is no need to fear the giant with seven league boots

The leaves fall from the tree

The wind blows them left and right

The anxiety of separation breathes heavily

Defy the strength of the wind

Lucha day and night

Whistle the song of victory

Let us be leaves of substance

Let the blood flow through the veins

Breathe life into the story

We are free

Do not fall far from the tree

Patria Grande

Esperanza de todos

We are Latinos and we made it
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Multicultural Education for Our Nation

Multicultural education

Is not education for people of color

It is for you my sister and for you too my brother

It is for everyone

Strip yourself of the ignorance and do not fear the necessary dialogue my dude

Without fully integrated multicultural education we shall forever live in a socially constructed, academically suppressing, culturally deceiving, economically incompetent and blind to reality environment that does not discriminate against anyone

In many ways our education system has failed us—forgive me, I don’t mean to be rude

Crude is he who edited my textbook—Crude is what is missing from my standardized textbook—Crude is the reality of the world we live in not that “cute” story that lives in my textbook

I don’t want “cute” stories of colonization, imperialism, international conflict, poverty, censorship, conspiracy

Save that story for the crook

Save that story for the crook that fails to see the universal benefit of the goals of multicultural education

Save that story for the crooks in Arizona that think banning books and censoring history decreases ethnic conflict

The fear of controversial conversation—the fear of controversial conversation deeply affecting our nation

I say your stories are nothing more than a fable—falsehoods—what are you to do with that verdict?

They say it’s All Quiet on the Western Front

And the South American Front?  And the Middle Eastern Front? And the Southeast Asian Front?

Forgive me if I have been misleading

Continue reading, breathing in the words I am writing

Find them enlightening, enticing

With the intent of rhyming, beating to the beat of the heart

Here is where it starts

It’s not just cultural

It’s about race, class, gender, politics, economics

Multicultural education can be like the air and oxygen we breathe

the sustenance of life—with which we fight the weaponless strife of the mind

it does not discriminate—we can all take it in when we are so inclined

Yet the accessibility to clean air is as related to negligence as the accessibility to an effective and adequate education

Resilience, persistence fight negligence

It is not an imminence to speak up and give our two cents

Reconstruction, Revolution

Not an imposing institution

Polarization—the debate of our nation—it’s not about creation—

Institutional changes

Curriculum based changes

Changes in teaching styles

Changes in administration

Attitudes, perception

School culture

Multidimensional—

content integration

knowledge construction

prejudice reduction

Differentiated instruction

De facto segregation

Teach social action

Universally accessible curriculum—I do not want to be culturally and intellectually numb