#LatinoLit: Pride in the Name of Puerto Rican Love

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#LatinoLit: Pride in the Name of Puerto Rican Love

June 12, 2011 by Julito Varela

When we read the amazing poem this weekend by our friend and fellow writer Efrain Ortiz Jr, it got us thinking: it’s time to express pride. So, if you are a Puerto Rican poet, writer, blogger or just one proud boricua, add your link to your poem down below in the comments section or add a few lines about why your pride is deeper than some parade on 5th Avenue. ¡Viva el orgullo boricua!

This is NOT Boricua Pride

My Own Parada

My own parada

I dance in my heart

My own bandera

I fly in my soul

My own patria

I love in my blood

My own pueblo

I scream to be free.

I banish all these things to EL CARAJO:

Boricua Kangols

Boricua shirts with boricua shorts with boricua socks and boricua shoes

Boricua cars covered with boricua pennants and boricua horns

Boricua shouts that would rather scream for JLO and Reggaetón instead of Albizu

My own parada

I celebrate in my heart

My fellow boricuas

Paren la parada falsa

Stop the false parade

Celebren sus propias paradas

Celebrate your own parades.

© Julio Ricardo Varela

Posted in #LatinoLit, Puerto Rico | Tagged #LatinoLit, @julito77, boricua, Latino, orgullo, Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican Day Parade | 2 Comments

2 Responses

on June 12, 2011 at 11:48 am | Reply Gabrielle Rivera

http://gabriellerivera.com/2011/06/12/puerto-rican-day-parade-poem-inspired-by-julio-ricardo-varela/

my pride is deeper than 5th avenue because 5th avenue is a capitalist cesspool of fancy stores they don’t want us shopping at in the first place.
- on June 12, 2011 at 12:14 pm | Reply Julito Varela
  
  I freaking love your poem!!!!!
  
  My Own Parada
  My own parade
  is high crescendo trumpets in between beautiful broken bits of spanglish
  My own flag
  waves down the brown of my flesh out through abuela’s dios te bendigas
  My own patria
  becomes la matria. no ties to a fatherland. i was cut from a woman at birth.
  My own pueblo
  is not the Bronx, is not the hood, is not this urban mass of buildings blocking the ocean’s breeze
  I banish all these things to EL CARAJO:
  Boricua blunt wraps
  Boricua flags made out of beads, made out of plastic coquis, used solely to appease a colonized people
  Boricua cars covered with Boricua girls in Boricua Bikinis and bleached blond Boricua yellow hair
  Boricua shouts that would rather pull your titties out than talk about donde nacido yo
  My own parada
  I celebrate in my heart holding your hand
  My fellow boricuas
  Paren la parada falsa
  Stop the false parade of Goya, Coors Light and La Mega down 5th ave
  Celebrate Boricua ancestors and boricua spanish on new york city streets
  Por favor, Emboricuate at your own risk.