Though we tremble before uncertain futures may we meet illness, death and adversity with strength may we dance in the face of our fears.

Do work that matters. Vale la pena

These my two hands / quick to slap my face / before others could slap it.

Write in the kitchen, lock yourself up in the bathroom. Write on the bus or the welfare line, on the job or during meals.

I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue - my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.

To survive the Borderlands you must live sin fronteras be a crossroads.

I am mad - but I choose this madness.