CORRIDO BLANCO

Her notebook declares, "if for you fathers
my logos suffers too, (what did Paul say?)
’Mulieres’ You ’in Ecclesia tace-
ant, Top, mujeres en iglesia, you

te nacen, palabrita, tú, mía."
In the schools from Rome, you are born living.
from London too: nace la palabra.
And you become and kill a tongue or two.

Criolla, woman whose words I see, hear,
maestra, teacher, eye and ear and tongue
for me. Here I am one nine year old boy.
No hay razón, sólo poder. Here I

hear, see, palabra suya, "Know: children
be silent in school. No language, or word
or sound you know from homelands. Ameri-
ca, no way to spell it but one. I know."

-Alfred Arteaga

Berklee’s poetry Walk was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The current sign features a poem written by the Mexican-American poet Alfred Arteaga (1950-2008), a prominent poet in the Chicano movement (which drew its inspiration from the "Black Power" movement), for the preservation and rights of Mexican culture in the United States.
Arteaga was a professor at the University of Berkeley in the Department of Ethnic Studies