Bolivian Streets (La
Paz)
-------------------------
("And
hardened in the furnace fires of
Bolivian streets")
We descended
from kings/
Immortal lineage the
indian brings/
When the blood of
his body is deeper than the source
of a spring/
We're rooted to the
earth/
More specifically to the
path/
from Tierra del Fuego down
to Canada on the map/
...The
winds, of change, have come/
But
my people have still remained
strong in the face of
adversity/
I'm mixed blood,
almost every color occurs in
me/
The culmination of the
genetic set of diversity/
Inside
the Mayan university, where they
taught theories of math,
engineering structural city
plans/
To the mound-builders of
Cahokia/
Long as Andean millenia
and the history of Bolivia/
To
the city-states of Nasca/
Part of
a free-trade pact, spanning
Patagonia to Alaska/
To the
Caribbean, Blackfoot and through
Nebraska/
For Centuries, before
anybody conceived of
NAFTA/
..This land was densely
populated in fact/
With more
peoples in the Americas than
Europe at that/
With greater
population density than India
packed/
Until the epidemics
attacked on first contact/
Like
n...
Chorus:
-------
(x2)
I admit, it's easier to
preach than live it/
I almost
lost my life as a
Christian/
Lying on my back in
derision/
Hardening my heart in
my condition/
You never knew
it/
Because you never
listen/
Hate given over the fate
that people were given/
..And the
faith that I wasn't living/
But I
refused to remain calm/
..Thought
of myself as strong/
Your mind'll
play tricks on you when the
devil's got your arm/
And you're
alone in a world of harm/
With
nothing to lean on but a knife and
an ice grill like bronze/
...I
thought I understood the church's
past/
Till I was face forward in
the reality of brutality/
Seeing
indigenous people in
poverty/
Because of a
colony/
Consecrated by religious
authority/
Now I understand the
hurt/
And why the people of earth
will curse the church/
As if it
were dirt/
(chorus)
Walking
the streets of La Paz/
Giving
pause to every thought of Western
progression you've ever
had/
Inside societies that were
ravaged hundreds of years/
You
can see another side of humanity
that appears/
And another side of
yourself when you look in the
mirror/
It's enough to make you
want to repent/
When you see a
grown man cover his face as he's
working for rent/
To try to hide
the shame of shining your shoes
for tweleve cents/
But/
When
that's the option you got, gotta
take it/
Immigration laws, gotta
break it/
Especially when your
kids are barely able to sleep from
hunger pains/
And you know it
stays the same the longer that you
remain/
..You'll become an easy
target for blame/
But surviving,
you gotta break the rules playing
in this unfair game/
Know there's
more to life than driving a car
with a fancy name/
So I spit a
flame to create change.
