First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me. – First They Came- Pastor Martin Niemoller

Today, they came for my mother and father and my aunt and my uncle and my neighbors and their children– they didn’t ask for any proof – no ID – no papeles – no proof of birth – no consolation prizes – they shouted in American – thank goodness – they all spoke good American – some were even bilingual– it doesn't matter – my father who could pass for Spaniard shouted – but I was born in Puerto Rico – we are born American citizens – it did not matter – ya sound, ya look non-American to us – But my grandfather was from Spain – But you’re not from Spain – my mother, well that’s another matter – she’s from the Dominican Republic – next to that other shithole country Haiti – She’s a little brown – brown like the tan that Fred and Ethel spend hours trying to burn themselves into – But Fred and Ethel don’t speak any Spanish or German or Dutch or Russian or (what the hell do they speak in Lithuania) like their great grandfather and grandmother did – when they sailed the ocean blue – in 1922 – past the Statue of Liberty – onto Ellis Island – my father reminds Fred and Ethel that Puerto Ricans have been American citizens since 1917 – it don’t matter - ya sound, ya look non-American to us – now, my mother on the other hand – she definitely – defiantly – looks like Fred and Ethel’s worst nightmare as they lay their heads down in their mobile home on Trash Lane – with their velvet paintings of their leader and savior – because they know a good Christian when they see one – performing muscle-loaded one arm pushups with an M-16 in one hand – the Bible in their mouth – a Superman cape over his back – while they sing the Star Spangled Banner – Jose, Can you see the Stars and Stripes – My father’s name is not Jose – Under the Stars and Stripes – Trust me, this is not the first time – The Men in their cosplay military gear strapped to their balls – their tight butts and muscle-loaded guns and tanks and Hummers and American Flag masks – Proudly we hail – My mother demands – And you thought she was some shy compliant peasant woman – where are your papers – yes, that’s an accent – like Fred and Ethel’s grandparents still had an accent- when you cosplaying fake-ass macho drag wearing mofos were just bouncing on their knees – my mother demands – in her Bronx New York Dominican accent – who are you, why are you here – I’ve given birth already – Five children – you’re too late – they are the rainbow – Citizens all of them – and they ain’t a damn thing you can do – you cannot stop the rainbowing of America – You cannot dream of a White Christmas – A White Easter – A White country – that only existed in your fantasies – and history books – and television commercials – and Hollywood movies – and those Norman Rockwell pictures – you insist – is the America that Fred and Ethel – Ozzie and Harriet– Donna and Alex on the Donna Reed Show – all fought and died for – You believe you earned a right – to stand on top of the millions of dead bodies as the forerunners of Fred and Ethel made their way across the –

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee 

O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years

– Flying the flag – red white and blue only in their imaginations –

Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears

– Another Trail of Tears – The Chinese Exclusion Act – the Mexican Repatriation – Operation Wetback – Tell me again how America welcomes – 

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

– Herding like cattle my mother and father and my aunt and my uncle and my neighbors and their children – for an European ideal of a White Virgin America that never existed – 

America! America! God shed His grace on thee

– So they can march over the dead souls of millions of memories they don’t want to imagine anymore –They came for me and there was no one left to save me –

Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!