Little Rock

By Nicolás Guillén

A "blues" cries his song tearful
In the thin morning rain
The North White shakes his whip
It strikes the whole world.
Boys rifles educational gap between poor
At his school in fear.
When you get to your classes,
Will have classes with W. Bush, Blair and Lula
And there is every book every boy Blood Ink, pencil fire and hunger...
Much advertising, little knowledge, no truth
That neo-liberalism and communism is good kills...
That Jesus Christ is on the side of capital, against people, against the poor...
God is a capitalist and the devil is a communist
That the IMF is the redemption and nationalism doom of the world
What the Americans lead civilization to the world...
So is the North, his whip is constantly...
The chances are equal for all!
The slum and the son of a millionaire have an equal chance
If the squatter prefer trafficking, theft or unemployment,
For he has the whip, the law, prison.
That the son of the rich "naturally" expresses its vocation differently:
The father of this is meant to be a doctor that the child
The father of that is meant for the child to be entrepreneur
And lead them to meet these vocations absolutely natural, of course,
"The chances are equal for all..."
"The chances are equal for all"
But the poor boy is not even
At the door of the school's rich
Without being searched, looked with disdain or distrust or fear
Or would you prefer to stay at home...
 Or maybe (you never know)
Leave to strike the oppressor even unto martyrdom.
Or perhaps venture into the streets.
Or maybe die the bullet in the "war on terror"...
Or maybe whistling while passing a beautiful mulatta
Or maybe lower my eyes, yes,
Bending the body, yes,
Screw up, yes,
At the free world, yes, sir North...
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
Now boys, old, hairy and naked,
Now Indians pashtus, mulattos, blacks, Asians,
Consider that would be
A globe north
A worldwide blood and whip
A world of white school for whites,
 A whole world and all Little Rock,
A Yankee world, all "WASP"
The dream of Hitler led to the ultimate
Nazism more cruel, bloody, dirty and washed out
But "nice" without opposition.
Imagine for a moment.