Tag: Maxochitl Cortez

Doomscrolling isn’t solidarity

By Maxochitl Cortez

I too doomscroll
scroll a screen of California fires
Texas floods
protests for black and brown kin
the news it flows too easy on the screen

I see
police brutality 
LA resisting protecting people 
picked up
piece

by       

piece

off
the     

streets
our streets

stories seep out of me
my language is documentation
not the kind of documents they want 
to see

how do you document a people 
carved from this land
back when my tiabuela’s cheekbones spoke 
of revolution

she reveals to me the stories 
in banned books
banned // barred // black // brown // bars  
our stories must be told

written down carved even 
                       into our skin 
like they have been carved 
                       into our DNA

our people are not trends 
hash tagging their #names 
is not enough
what is the liberation they 
yearned for
burned for

SAY THEIR NAME
repeat           

#repeat         

REPEAT
repeat           

#repeat         

          #LONGLIVETORTUGUITA

say her name 
your abuela, your tiabuela, your vis abuela. . .

what stories do they have stored 
                                                          frozen
                                                                      cold
                                                                                old
will the pages sit 
                        in your freezer too?
preserved to serve
or lay severed in the scorching sun 
that demands our salty sweat 

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Maxochitl Cortez is Chichimekah and Coahuiltecan from the lands of Aridoamerica. They are a two spirit Indigenous Resistance Artist, Educator, and Community Organizer—using storytelling as a pathway for collective liberation. They are a host with every.Word poetry, a Black and Indigenous led spoken word organization in so called Austin, Texas. The seeds of their storytelling ask what liberation means, what we will do to get there for all people, and what narratives we honor during our path to healing. Find them on instagram @raya.maxochitl.

Photo credit: Felton Davis via a Creative Commons license.

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