One Bad Mami

Mamita Mala explains why voting is only one of the tools we must use if we really, actively, want to bring about change.



Transcript below. H/T bfp and miss crip-chick

I’m going to say something extremely unpopular that goes against what the mainstream media and the candidates themselves are telling us and I’m specifically addressing this to my Latino hermanas and hermanos, your vote doesn’t count. In fact with all this hype around the Latino vote I’m gonna tell you not to vote. Now before you start throwing stuff at me, allow me to qualify my statements. Your vote does not count and you shouldn’t vote if you think that your vote alone is going to change the state of things in the United States. As my mentor Richie Perez, que en paz descanse, once told me, voting is just one weapon in our revolutionary toolbox and we all need to think not about just fixing what is broken in this country, but tearing it down and building anew and in building something new we need to use all the weapons available. So, yes vote on November 4th but not if you think your work is done when you walk out of that booth. There is a reason both John McCain and barack Obama haven’t brought up immigration at the last three debates despite the fact that redadas/raids keep tearing families apart.. There is a reason Sarah Palin is talking about and to hockey moms and not futbol mamitas, the ones who are bearing the brunt of the heathcare crisis. There is a reason we are not hearing/reading about the fact that there are two women of color, Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente running as a presidential team. We cannot just vote with our hands. We need to vote with our feet hitting the streets. We need to vote with our mouths yelling and spitting truths and that can happen around our kitchen tables and in our kalles. Mujeres latinas, we need to vote with our lips, tits, and hips and the history they carry, from forced operaciones that left our women sterile to attempts to take away all of our choices about our bodies.

So what does this Mamita Mala, this mujer want, seeing that is the theme of the night? This mujer wants you remember those that died to vote in this country, those that got their asses beat to vote, those who still can’t vote including the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, residents of U.S. colonies like my patria/homeland Puerto Rico and millions of immigrants. Use your vote wisely the way a soldier is supposed to use weapon, the way a construction worker uses his tools. Use it to support and work towards something bigger. It doesn’t end on November 4th.