Mike Seifert, of the RGV Equal Voice Network, and Alba Caceres, the Guatemalan consul in McAllen, hold white crosses honoring Guatemalan workers Marco Antonio Castro and Jose Leonardo Coj.

BROWNSVILLE, November 2 - Guardian columnist Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr., has written a poem in tribute to the two Guatemalan immigrants killed by a DPS sharpshooter north of La Joya last week.

Acevedo dedicates the poem also to "nuestros hemanos y hermanas de las Americas." The poem is titled Tenemos Hambre, which means We are Hungry.

Tenemos Hambre

We are Hungry

By

Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr.

They came this way
Dos hombres de Guatemala
Jose Leonardo Coj
Marco Antonio Castro

They came this way
Dos hombres de Guatemala
Carrying the hopes and dreams of
Their village and familia

They came this way
Dos hombres de Guatemala
Of the same blood as us
We share the same lineage
Of Indio and Spaniard
Of Christian and Ancient Scholar
Of Warrior and Slave
They came to work for the American Dollar

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
Their future entrusted to el Coyote
Their stock paid for a piece of the American Dream
Which turns out to be just a scheme

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
In hopes of a better life
Hopefully one filled with less strife

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
At home there remains the memory
Of their voices and their smiles
As they lay in repose far away in terms of miles

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
And they never left America nor did
They enter the America of hope

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
To die and sigh their last breathe
On the same land where our forefathers
Died at the end of the Texas Ranger’s rope

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
Now they are dead, shot by the Enforcers
Of the White Man’s law
Which of course will be found to have no flaw

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
To die on a dusty caliche country road
Their last vision was of farmland
Where they would never toil or stand

They came this way
Dos Hombres de Guatemala
Porque aqui Jose y Macro?
Hermano, por que Tenemos Hambre
Y el Rio Grande no tiene alambre

Con todo respecto a nuestros hemanos y hermanas de las Americas

Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr., Ph.D., is a Chicano activist and member of La Raza Unida Party of Bailey County in the Texas Panhandle and Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has residences in Brownsville, Waco and Corrales, New Mexico.

Write Raul de la Cruz

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