Lunes con Lalo one day late: Bilingual Wars and Fundraiser

I think I caught something from the ducks in Deming, so I wasn't able to post the weekly wisdom from Lalo Delgado yesterday. Better late then never:

LUNES CON LALO ONE DAY REMOVED

Poetic Wisdom for Your Week from the Poetry Laureate of Aztlan

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BILINGUAL WARS

Last night I met
another vet,
a veteran
of the bilingual wars.

He showed me
his medals and his scars
and spoke of California and Arizona
as if they were Vietnam.

I told him
the war was coming to Colorado
and the enemy
was well armed with dollars
and had taken good aim
at the new battlefield terrain.

We reminisced of when
bilingual bicultural education
was born back in the late fifties
in San Antonio, Texas

We also remembered
how it was before
when a rubber hose
enforced Texas law
of no Spanish on the school grounds.

It's not really
bilingual ed they fights
but us Xicanos.

I shook his hand
and gave him
a warm Xicano hug.

We both hoped
Xicanos and non-Xicanos
were ready to fight
another bilingual war
right in their own backyard.

====

FUNDRAISER

Better to give
than to receive
so Thursday eve
a poetry reading is scheduled
for an economic reprieve.

A garage sale will take place
the day after, while
congress
gets ready for a
f u n d r a i s e r
of their owe
to fund the war.

We're trying to save Su Teatro,
CHAC and seven thousand other
non-profit art organizations
all over Aztlán.

They are the current victims
of the economic crunch,
belted by the one-two punch
and by the end to the free lunch.

Bring in the Kool-Aid
and know
that la raza of beans and maiz
is going to stick around
and defend their holy ground.

====