En el mar

Evicted from home
I dive into the waters of my soul
From the Middle Passage
To Hispaniola
The Atlantic tells
My silenced ancestral historia

Let me tell you, María,
The slave ship, sank
The master’s house, crashed
The plantation, burned
But the high tide
of the brutal past
docks in our shore in the present
as tourists and cruises submerged
In racism, imperialism and sexism
Their colonial appetite
treats our body as sightseeing,
entertainment and property
But we’re gonna let them know,
Our humanity is not on sale
In the curves of  free existence
We’re gonna sail

We are Black queens,
not ‘garota de Ipanema’,
María del Barrio,
nor sleeping beauty
waiting for the prince
who rides white horses
gives her red roses
spears her singing lies
of everlasting love
The sweet tune of  western  femininity
is a captive melody
Virgin or bitch
We’re neither things
But tenacious spirits
Navigating crossroads
Creating a destiny
of inner love
in community

Come on, María! Hold my hand!
Let’s rejoice unity!
wide horizon that our hips see
salty skies that our breasts feel
healing the colonial wounds
of bigotry
The obscurantist whiteness
will never grasp
Our wisdom,
The inner rhythm
our spirits attest

Let’s dive into our embodied sea,
the immensity of the ocean
of our ancestry
The yabás lead us toward the loving path
Healing the pieces of our broken past
Reconciling the roots
that paves the route
of the rebellion of being, new.

On this beach, we embrace our bodies
honoring the Marias
In our bloodline
Our black skin shines
In the incendiary sun of the diaspora
Smiling the explosive taste
of liberation
Breezy sand and fresh wind
As a tender embrace

Yemanjá
Makes us one with the Atlantic
As brave as Anacaona,
Our black souls and brown spirits
make this Island
a colorful uplifting beach

Let’s break the violent cycle
cuz “your silence will not protect you”
“No le pegue a la negra” no more
From machismo and racismo
“Me liberé”
Let´s shout the bounce of abundance
Spread the word of lively zapateos
Dismantle the vacunaos of partriachy
Sing the jumps
of our ancestral vital energy

One – two – three – four
The diaspora is our dancefloor
Five – six – seven – eight
Math of life
Science of delight
One – two – three – four
Five – six – seven – eight
In countless passion,
and the politics of love
we rise
Samba – Rap – Salsa – Cumbia
Tondero – Caporales – Landó – Rumba
we embody
The ancestral cadencia

Where the waters dance
sand moves
In the blue notes of nature
Skies and thighs hold hands
meneanando
the rhythm of our curls,
Mind, body, feeling and spirit
rumbeando
like waves in the sea

‘Cuz our ancestras gave us the key
The power and wisdom to set us free
To navigate the subversive sea
of self-acceptance, joy, pleasure
and vitality

Siguiente