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The free association of “brown” girls

Lissette Quiñones

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Art by Lissette Quiñones

But she can’t speak for herself since she doesn’t know the language

And although she’s weeping for help, all she seems to do is vanquish

It’s like the ones who should flourish are the same ones to languish

As if they shouldn’t have courage to speak their native, spanglish


Damn right, I’m angry for the pride of my people

For how are we supposed to thrive if they still deem us “illegal?”

And how are we supposed to survive within a dream that is lethal?

Please, don’t tell me you see eye to eye in something UNEQUAL


It’s like the scales of justice never seem to be aligned

And while they say to “trust this”, we just know they’re always lying

But with the moral compass of a mother and a lion,

It’s best to never mess with brown girls who are within their prime.


Because it’s most likely that she came up with no ‘pot to piss in’

She didn’t need a man nor needed fake love from such politicians

Every other plan seemed like the outlook of some polished prisons

And yet some want to say they understand the life of abolished women?


Uh uh, no ma’am, just take a bow, just roll your tongues and say this loud:

“I have NEVER bowed down to a white man, I WON’T do it now”

Mamacitas que tan bailando, con el corazón pegao

My latinas, please come and follow, let us own this cause we’re brown


She’s lightly colored but her blood is bleeding black,

Rhythms of a spicy mother, but it’s something from a deepened track

Cooking con sazon for supper, our children always eating that

But still, she wishes they would love her enough to bring freedom back


Mírame en los ojos y dígame que me amas,

Nations composed of cholos, Boricuas, y las Cubanas

Todas con sangre rojo y labios Dominicanas,

Concrete roses where solo, we rose up as brown, slick “mamas”


Pages in history books could never tell our stories

Raging with misery because the “lessers” did it for me

Caging such liberty since the repressors have their glory

Prayed the epitome and betrayed her because she’s a Bori


We never get no love, no affection, no sort of peace within our world

Whatever we’re made of, legend says it’s not ‘easy’ being girls

We’re better but “not by much”; see why we question the things we’ve heard?

Taking pleasure in how you judge us, our faces and all our curls


She’s beautiful, but you’re never reminded of her potential

Just let the truth unfold and see diamonds form circles in her centrals

For it’s unsuitable to be hurtful and yet to pretend to be so gentle

Delusionally jumping over hurdles because you say that we are “mental”


ATTENTION, ATTENTION- I speak for every single piece within her heart

A lesson to teach you how to unwrinkle creased up scars

The oppression in our sheets that trickles out, into the dark

And the tension that’s in the streets that will not let us twinkle like stars


I apologize in advance, but this is what our truths unfold

In the demise within our chance, I shall tell you all the things you weren’t told

They despise our stance, and the skin that glows and grows just as you get old

But baby, please do understand that is what makes you beautiful.


So, I guess it’s time that we accept what’s true,

Repent for all your crimes against the opposite sex of you

Especially the ones like me and the things that we all went through

Because all we wanted was to be women treated like men, too


Regardless of her race, her pronouns and her “real” color

You should look upon her face and notice there’s no other

Beauty in our grace, we were passed down from our brown mothers

But Latinas aren’t erased, so if she’s brown, you’ve got to love her.


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