shout out to Tony Medina

How to be Nuyorican

Cha cha in your mother’s sterilized womb
Bugalu in the belly with bomba on your brain

Nelson A Miles tried to run train
On your great great grandma

Resurrect the spirits of Betances Hostos
Lolita Albizu con otros

Operation Bootstrap
Is evidence of the New World Order

Brush your teeth
With Gandule Aquafresh

The news that Puerto Rico
Is the world’s oldest colony
Es un periodico de ayer

The pain of colonialism
El mundo quiere saber

Do everything la gente blanca
Dice que no puedes hacer

Sigue pa’lante pa’ el monte

Repair the broken fractures
of your Afro Latino Identity

listen to Willie Colon
The Hustler non stop buying pernil

Snore like a coqui

Bump Guasa Guasa and Lean Back
Dressed like SuperBoricua and the Coqui Kid
At the Parade

Scream WEPA and Que Bonita Bandera
At the 1116th street festival

Rock a hoody under a guayabera in the summer
Wear chanclas with sweats and socks in the winter
Have a cousin in Castle Hill
A primo in Hunts Point
A grandma in Rio Grande
And grandfathers drinking café en el cielo

See Marc Anthony
As a poor man’s Hector Lavoe

JLO needs more sofrito
In her movies and videos

Demand Bronx politicians be brave
Fight for the people

Praise De La Vega
As a Puerto Rican Picasso

Watch red states complain
When Carlos Arroyo cooks Carmelo
And say Puerto Rico should not have
Any Olympic team

When Puerto Rico
Is a sovereign country
That is our American Dream

Rise from Los Sures
Be humble in Humboldt Park
Holleame en Spanish Harlem

Young Lords are our heroes
Takin over Statue of Liberty
Creatin strikes with garbage

Feel the pain of Filiberto’s familia
As the federales fill his body with bullets
And leave it there lying

Know that Borinken es la perla de Carribean
Hype yourself off this fact chilling en La Perla

Love your brothers and sisters of all shades

Understand the history of your blood
Royalty criminals and slaves

Hang a flag on your wall
Wear a flag on your sneakers
Display a flag in your car
Tattoo the Lares flag on your heart

Baptize your family
With Puerto Rican Obituary

Recite the Spanglish National Anthem
Like it was the Pledge of Allegiance

End each statement
With Punto Asi es check it

Punto

Asi es

Check it.