¿Que vamos hacer?

Los domingos, I usually sit around and read all day until about 7 PM, when I head out to the living room to watch Extreme Home Makeover and Desperate Housewives. Today, the only difference has been what I’ve been reading.

I’m taking my sister’s Latino Lit class in Spanish. We’re using an anthology called En otra voz. I remember when I started working at the press, I had to send out all the intro’s to the people who wrote them. That fall, it came to fruition and there was a lot of talk about it. Just having started mi proceso de concientación, I had no idea what the big deal was.

Having read the first seven chapters and taken a numerous amount of Mexican American Studies classes, I see the importance. Every time El Profe comes upstairs performing the same song and dance he does at least ten times a semester to get some rico do donate some money to the press, I wish I was rich. Half the time, those people take our books and don’t give a single cent. I’m sure they take the books and give them away or put them on a bookshelf to collect dust. Never do they consider the importance of the press.

The other day over lunch, I expressed my wish of donating money to the press. And you know what my sister replied, “You already donate a lot. You’re underpaid, you work extra hours, and you read our books.”

I didn’t realize it until now the importance of that last thing she said. Es como gritaron y gritan el J.A.G., Alurista, Tato Laviera, Gloria Anzaldúa, Dolores Huerta and all the other Chicana/o foremothers and fathers from words on a page to “Viva la Raza” chants, tenemos que hacer algo.

My generation has the ball now. We’re at the fifty yard line, are we gonna for the first down or the touchdown?

P.S. Ya'll go check out Lotería Chicana and The Daily Texican.