dre poetic: words by adrien salazar

I.

As I stood inside the Bear’s Lair on UC Berkeley campus staring at the television screen at the face of the man who is my future President, I listened to him talk about the sacrifices made to get to where we are today by so many and in an instant thought of my parents. I remembered the sacrifices that they had made to come to this country, dragging an unwitting three year old boy and a ten month old daughter across an ocean, not for themselves, but for a dream, a possibility, for us. I saw a man speaking before me whose father also came from another country; and I understood for the first time. Everything my parents sacrificed for us was for this. This man’s dream was their same dream. They all believed in something, in a place where something more would be possible for their children. I saw my future President, and listened to him speak about our America. I realized that this man is like me. And for the first time in my life, I realized this is my America too.

II.

After the end of the speech friends gathered outside the Bear’s Lair. I hugged my friends and we were happy. Genuinely happy. This was our history and we were living it here together.

In a quick gust I heard from the crowd that people had taken over Shattuck Avenue. Vanessa Coe and I caught each other’s eyes and knew what we had to do. We ran to each other and said “Let’s get this movement moving.”

Without hesitation I zipped around the motley crowd gathering in front of the Bear’s Lair waving my arms frantically, made like Huerta and Veracruz and yelled “Get in the streets!”. I realized that you have to move to get people moving and Vanessa and I said “Let’s go!” to each other and we started walking to Bancroft.

In a second Vanessa wanted to dash into the street and pull the crowd now filling the sidewalk into it with us. I took note of the speeding cars honking in celebration and yelled to her “Wait for the red light!” It turned and we took to the streets.

III.

The crowd took over Bancroft and Telegraph. Compadres and strangers who were now compadres cheered. Shouts of “O-BA-MA!” and chants erupted everywhere led by everyone. I got up on a trash bin to stare at the crowd of hundreds and saw the people running down Bancroft towards us from Shattuck.

My good friend Carlo Delacruz brought out a rainbow American flag and was waving it. I asked Carlo if I could sit on his shoulders to see the crowd. “Yes get up!” And he handed me the flag. Hoisted up I immediately started waving the flag. The crowd before me roared and all I could do was smile and give flight to that flag. Pride and hope filled my body and I could do nothing about it. I was doing what my spirit needed to be doing.

IV.

The joy in the streets was overwhelming. It was surreal and ultra-real all at once.

“I can’t believe this is happening” I said to Alvin David.
“Oh I believe,” he retorted.

As we marched Grace McCullough turned to me and said “Our people are in the streets and it is not because we are protesting our oppression. We are taking over the streets in joy.”

I felt like now I knew what it must have been like to be Moving in 1968.

V.

The air of November 5 is incredibly clear. I breathe in my future. I breathe in the Changed World.

VI.

Proposition 8 passed in California. It gives today a bittersweet aroma.

Some of us are mourning today.

But I will not mourn for I have nothing to mourn. Nothing has died and this moment is too sweet to be torn asunder by one blip of disappointment. If I mourned it would mean I have lost hope, and that is not possible because I am filled with more hope than I have ever been before in my entire life.

As a friend told me “The long arc of history bends towards justice.”

Despite some loss, I can not help but still own this moment. This is our moment and no proposition can take that feeling away.

VII.

I am filled with hope today. Today I awaken to a changed America. Barack Obama is my President. He is our President. A President who is an organizer. A President who knows how it is. A President who knows that this is only the beginning of the long hard work.

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change.” President-Elect Obama.

As the passing of Proposition 8 in California shows us, the struggle is not over. But for me, I have a President who I really can say is like me. I have for the first time the real inextinguishable faith in this country as a place where a positive future is possible for those of us who have struggled for so long and only dreamed of it as a shadow of a possibility.

In the streets last night I heard two men talking to each other and one said “Maybe now it’s possible that this country will actually become a good place.” And they embraced.

I now know how it feels to believe that. I understand why America matters. Why my parents chose this place. Why they made their sacrifices for dreams they would never see the full fruits of. Well Mom and Dad, let me show you this. This is the seed that you planted and hoped with all your might that it could grow into a brilliant tree. Though the soil was rocky and hard, the first leaf is just beginning to break through.

As the President-Elect has said, we have a long hard uphill road ahead of us with some of the most improbable obstacles ever in our history. More than a victory, this moment is a chance–a challenge. We can’t slow down. We have wanted hope and change. Now we know what we are capable of. It is now in our hands.

I know now what it means to believe in America.

He is my President. Our President. And this is the beginning of Our America.