"Puerto Rican Obituary," by Pedro Pietri (1973)

[MrFungud]

This is why my people never show up on time for work. Remember 9/11?

THANK GOD WE DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR WORK THAT DAY!! Is all I'm sayin'.

[Fremglerk]

"They worked They were always on time They were never late They never spoke back when they were insulted They worked They never took days off that were not on the calendar They never went on strike without permission They worked ten days a week and were only paid for five They worked They worked They worked and they died They died broke They died owing They died never knowing what the front entrance of the first national city bank looks like"

[fleckx]

Amazing. I'm so mad I've never heard this before.

[popopopopo159]

ME NEITHER GINGERSweetauiz. Me Neither. RIP.

[nexapa08]

I had Pedro read this in Nicaragua at the Dario Festival 1982, i had Ginsberg read Howl/

roberto Vargas

[outoforbit777]

masterpiece poem

[thewelfarepoets]

I wish the entire poem was here but am so grateful for this. The impact Pedro has had on The Welfare Poets is immeasurable. With his bold words, he gave us the permission to write. We miss him tremendously. I remember performing with him, hanging with him, but more, I remember his slanted look on a crooked world that gave us all peace of mind. He was not just one of our greatest Puerto Rican poet, but one of the greatest poets ever.

[peaceonearthforu]

Pedro Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1944 and raised in Harlem. After high school, he was drafted into the U.S. army, served in Vietnam, and returned to the United States a fierce opponent of that war and the system that spawned it.

Puerto Rican Obituary was first read in 1969 at a rally in support of the Young Lords Party, an anti-imperialist Latino youth group in New York. Like the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords were community activists.