A demo laid down in a hurry with my compañeros Jason Andolino and Cayson Morrison in Arizona. It tells the (shortened) story of the Bisbee Deportation of 1917 and other early 20th-century race / labor struggles in the state. There are so many strange and sickening parallels between the xenophobia of that time and that which we experienced in 2010 & beyond. Don't ever think that history is irrelevant.
Here the mines run 24 hours making bullets to fight foreign powers. When the sun comes up it is made of sangre y cobre, the two mix to make profit in this company town, el porfiriato que nunca se terminó, más bien se migró al norte. to Arizona where white men make an American wage Mexicans make half as much, citizens or not, their sweat mixed with rage that summer when Mexicans went on strike, the white men stood with them, knowing they were unequally paid but equally exploited
No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir
One morning in July the sheriff woke up early put badges on 2,000 white men put rifles in their 4,000 hands put a machine gun atop a company car drove through the shacks of Tintown and Zacatecas Canyon, asking Are you American or are you not? and by American they meant white, by American they meant docile worker, by American they meant corporate chump
They pulled dark men from their wives and marched them into company boxcars shoulder to shoulder only the summer heat between them, rolled them on company rails across the state line and left the 1200 men in the desert Told never to come back, not to our state not to our Nation at War, not to our White Man’s Camp.
No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir
Puros jornaleros sus derechos robados piel oscura sin derechos humanos Les decían braceros, puros cuerpos baratos, bajo el sol, esclavizados brazos
That was Bisbee 1917, this is Arizona 2010 If you think SB 1070 is anything new if you think Joe Arpaio is anything new you have a whole lot of reading to do
The copper star in our flag was always raised on the back of immigrants, Slavs, Mexicans, Chinese demonized and deported at the earliest convenience
Pero ya volvemos a salir, and in this ciclical cynical history, and we will not be silent
El pueblo, callado, jamás será escuchado
My state of has a long history of people who demonize immigrants for political gain But Arizonan politicians are also immigrants, their legality just a twist of history.
No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir No que no, sí que sí, ya volvemos a salir
Sudor y sangre algodón y cobre
Vocals & mastering: Logan Phillips. Bass & recording: Jason Andolino Organ & percussion: Cayson Morrison. Additional vocal: Nayla Altamirano. Artwork: Adam Cooper-Terán.
Field recordings from Alto Arizona march in Phoenix, 29 mayo 2010. http://www.myspace.com/orangepeelensemble http://www.dirtyverbs.com http://www.verbobala.com