Dreams from Many Rivers Read online

to avenge the death of my brother

  who was killed by villagers

  while trying to conquer them.

  The Acoma leader Zutacapán

  knows our weakness, this need

  for food, as we demand corn, beans,

  squash, and then more corn—the true gold

  of hungry soldiers.

  Fire.

  Blood.

  I seize Acoma and chop off the feet

  of twenty-four men, in order to set a horrifying

  example for the others. Yes, Oñate’s violence

  is like a fever, contagious, destroying

  everything in its path, including

  my conscience.

  WOMEN WHO WISH FOR PEACE

  MARTA

  New Mexico, 1598

  Such cruelty!

  Just like Juan de Oñate’s wife, yo soy una mestiza, with mixed blood,

  from a town near Mexico City. Yes, I’m part india,

  but my sons are now expected to kill other indios,

  these tribes of the north, here in quiet pueblos

  that remind me so much of my own serene village

  far to the south.

  We call this journey our Dead Man’s March,

  because the desert’s raging hunger

  and endless thirst

  almost

  destroy us.

  STORMING NORTHWARD

  JUSEPE GUTIÉRREZ

  Kansas, 1601

  Oñate is never satisfied.

  He already conquered the pueblos, but now

  he craves these grasslands, wild prairies

  with vast herds of massive creatures,

  huge bison that assure us we are no longer

  just seekers of treasure.

  We need meat,

  but while we hunt,

  hidden hunters watch us and learn

  how to master our powerful

  horsemanship skills.

  All it takes is a few runaway mares

  to change everything forever, making Osage men

  swifter than us and more skilled at riding

  bareback.

  CHOOSING SIDES

  DOMINGO

  New Mexico, 1680

  Some of us—mestizos from villages

  far to the south—join a rebellion,

  fighting on the side of the brave people

  of los pueblos, instead of supporting

  wealthy noblemen who treat us

  like beasts of burden.

  With new hope for life as free men

  instead of servants, we help send Spain’s army

  fleeing back across the same desert

  they thought they’d conquered

  so completely

  long ago.

  Choosing sides is not too difficult

  when my only possibilities are misery

  or hope.

  RECONQUEST

  DIEGO DE VARGAS

  New Mexico, 1692

  Drought begins to defeat the victorious rebels

  of the pueblos, but only after they’ve been free

  for a dozen years.

  Crops need water.

  People need food.

  By the time my heavily armed troops

  surround Santa Fe, I’m able to use bloodshed to force

  acceptance of a treaty, but everything else

  lingers beyond my control.

  I can make the people of Acoma agree to pretend

  that they are loyal subjects of Spain’s king

  and church, but there’s no way to really know

  secret feelings

  hidden traditions

  private beliefs.

  HOMESICK

  PEDRITO

  Florida, 1702

  Invasions, conquests, settlements,

  then attacks by Englishmen and the French,

  now rebellions by the Seminole, who try to reclaim

  their ancestral land.

  All I want is a chance to go home to my own isla,

  my birthplace, the beautiful island called Cuba—but

  if I had stayed there, I would still be a slave, merely

  because of my Yoruba ancestry.

  Volunteering as a soldier is the only

  path to freedom

  for a Cuban of African ancestry.

  So I try to forget my family, and I struggle to dream

  only of survival, here in the ragged town of San Agustín,

  where Spain has already spent seven million pesos

  trying to keep this troubled colony obedient.

  TRADED

  EDUARDO

  Florida, 1763

  England seized Cuba,

  then traded it for Florida.

  Now I’m suddenly expected

  to be British.

  Trading territories

  means exchanging

  one language

  for another.

  Will it be possible

  for me to dream

  without my own

  familiar words?

  FARM DREAMS

  FRANCISCO

  Louisiana, 1763

  Fields

  of

  our

  own

  someday.

  Cotton and sugarcane.

  Fertile soil.

  Spain received this region as the result of a peace treaty

  with France and England. Now my parents endure hunger, disease, steamy heat,

  saying it will all be worthwhile, if only I can become

  a landowner—eventually,

  instead of a blacksmith’s

  young apprentice, always wearing myself out,

  bending my aching back

  to shape glowing iron

  into horseshoes and swords

  for future battles.

  IMAGINING LIBERTY

  PABLO

  Virginia, 1779

  George Washington cannot win his war

  for independence from England

  without the help of Germans, Frenchmen,

  and soldiers like me, young volunteers from all

  the colonies of Spain.

  Here on the cold snow of Yorktown,

  I remember how it felt to be home in Venezuela’s heat

  when recruiters came, urging me to join a struggle

  for the freedom

  of northerners.

  Now I secretly know that if I survive this battle,

  someday I will be a rebel, too, ready to free

  my own nation

  from Spanish rule.

  MISSION LANDS

  CANDELARIA

  California, 1779

  We’re expected to send money

  to help George Washington, even though we

  barely have enough to feed ourselves.

  * * *

  We came to this remote colony from Sonora,

  leaving our Yaqui grandparents, pretending

  we’re not part indio—certain priests are willing

  to help us change our origins on paper,

  so that we will appear to be nearly pure Spanish,

  the only settlers entitled

  to own land.

  Sheep, horses, cows—we have our reward,

  but orchards and fields belong to la Misión de San Diego,

  where the laborers are captured Kumeyaay, enslaved

  without any choice.

  HYPOCRISY

  PADRE JUNÍPERO SERRA

  California, 1784

  I journeyed to las Américas after reading

  the testimony of María de Jesús de Agreda,

  a nun who described visiting los indios

  by flying back and forth on the wings of angels.

  I never imagined the military force I would need

  to keep dozens of tribes obediently working

  our mission fields, under the watchful eyes

  of marching soldiers.

  Sometimes I whip the captives myself.

  Pr
iests are expected to be gentle,

  but without violence, Spain’s misiones

  in Alta California would be abandoned

  by enslaved people who call me a monster

  demonic.

  THE ORPHAN PROJECT

  APOLINARIA LORENZANA

  California, 1800

  I am the youngest

  of twenty-one orphans

  sent to Alta California

  from Mexico City

  to be given away

  like puppies.

  All our lives, we’ve lived

  as sisters and brothers,

  but now we’re suddenly separated,

  older girls handed out as wives,

  and young ones like me given

  as housemaids, while boys

  go to mission soldiers

  to serve as ranch hands

  on the land they receive

  in exchange for enslaving

  los indios

  of many tribes.

  •

  Fearfully, quietly, I learn

  how to sew and cook the way priests demand,

  and nurse the sick,

  read a little bit,

  and fashion pretty flowers

  from scraps of smooth cloth.

  There should always be

  at least one beautiful

  silk blossom

  in each

  lonely

  orphan’s

  tragic

  life.

  HEALER

  JUANA BRIONES

  California, 1812

  How can liberty mean so many

  different things to various people?

  My father is part africano, with ancestors

  who were enslaved far to the south, in New Spain,

  and my mother is part Yaqui, just like most

  of the other settlers who came north from Sonora.

  I’m only ten, but already I understand the shouts

  of horsemen who gallop past our home at la Misión

  de Santa Cruz—cries of ¡California libre!

  Free California!

  But I can’t worry about the independence hopes

  of men. I have my chores—milking cows and learning

  from Mamá and the captive Ohlone women

  who show me how to cure wounds and fevers

  with medicinal plants, nature’s magic.

  PART THREE

  INDEPENDENCE FOR SOME

  NEWLY INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES

  The people of Mexico and South America rose up against Spain’s colonial empire, gaining independence. By now, most of the people of the region we refer to as Latin America were mestizos, a mixture of Indigenous, African, and Spanish ancestry.

  In these new republics, enslaved Africans were freed. Only Puerto Rico and other Spanish colonies in the Caribbean had not yet gained independence and the abolition of slavery.

  Despite the oppression and suffering brought by colonization, ordinary people struggled to remain strong and hopeful.

  WONDERING ABOUT THE FUTURE

  APOLINARIA LORENZANA

  California, 1822

  We suddenly belong to a newly

  independent country

  called Mexico.

  There’s already talk of closing the missions

  and sending Spanish priests

  back to their homeland,

  leaving those of us

  who depend

  on these farmlands

  abandoned.

  * * *

  So, while I worry and try to be hopeful,

  I also continue folding cloth to make blossoms

  of rippled petals with fancy edges

  that are just as lovely

  as wishes.

  RIVERS ARE BORDERS

  TERESITA

  Wyoming, 1822

  Quilts.

  Beautiful patches.

  Warmth.

  The strength

  of stitches.

  Threads.

  My skillful

  hands.

  Here on the northern border

  of Mexico, my daughters and I

  keep ourselves comforted by telling stories

  about summer, while hoping my husband and sons

  stay safe, never crossing the Yellowstone River

  north into dangerous territory

  ruled by foreigners.

  INTRUDERS

  MARTÍN DE LEÓN

  Texas, 1824

  I file my application for permission

  to bring colonists to the Guadalupe Valley.

  Relatives, friends, I wish we were enough—

  but I need more settlers, so we decide to accept

  Irishmen, and before I can stop them, more and more

  foreigners from the United States

  keep arriving

  uninvited.

  They have no papers,

  no proper documents!

  They behave as if they belong in Mexico,

  even though we clearly know

  they don’t.

  LAWBREAKERS

  JOSÉ SÁNCHEZ

  Texas, 1829

  While surveying land, I notice

  all the foreign squatters, who bring

  their own ways with them,

  including

  slavery.

  Men, women, children, all are forced to work

  in fiercely hot, dusty, miserable

  cotton fields.

  Don’t those lawbreakers from the US know

  that enslaving people is now illegal in Mexico?

  It’s one of the reasons we overthrew

  colonial Spain, to create a nation

  of free men.

  RANCH LANDS

  TEODORO

  Arizona, 1831

  With Mexico City’s government

  so far away, missions close,

  gardens and orchards wither,

  tame cattle and horses

  run wild.

  Every ranch hand

  claims what he can,

  roping cows

  and branding mustangs,

  then hoping for rain

  to keep the grass growing

  so that animals and people

  can survive.

  PART FOUR

  HEROES

  FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM

  The United States invaded Mexico, seizing land and persecuting millions of people who had gained, and soon lost, their independence. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean island colonies of Spain were still fighting for freedom.

  Throughout all these struggles, courageous individuals achieved amazing accomplishments in every aspect of life. Even when the obstacles seemed overwhelming, perseverance helped people face an uncertain future.

  TRANSFORMED

  JUANA BRIONES

  California, 1851

  Once again, my citizenship changes.

  Española, mexicana, and now norteamericana.

  A few years ago, the sudden invasion of gold miners

  was quickly followed by the United States army,

  and now I’ve been forced to flee my dairy farm

  in San Francisco, just to keep my family safe

  from roaming gangs that attack anyone

  who speaks

  Spanish.

  I feel as if my tongue has been amputated,

  but I won’t let them change me too much.

  When they seize my land, I make up my mind

  to learn how to fight for my rights in court,

  claiming English words

  as my own.

  BETRAYED

  JUAN SEGUÍN

  Texas, 1856

  Born Texan, I fight for independence

  from Mexico, hoping to create a free nation.

  I fight at the Alamo, side by side with Americans,

  and after we win, I’m elected senator, but then

  I’m accused of treason, merely because my dark skin

  makes pale men
think of me

  as an outsider.

  Driven across the southern border,

  I’m forced to choose between prison

  and the Mexican army. How unfair it feels

  to be compelled to fight this way, raiding

  my beloved Texas

  and living in a no-man’s-land

  between nations.

  HIRED AND FIRED

  SATURNINO

  Kansas, 1860

  We’re valued as cowboys

  all over the Great Plains.

  My experience working cattle

  at home on the Gran Chaco of Paraguay

  helps these American ranchers forget

  how proud I am of my own Guaraní

  indio ancestry.

  All this swift slaughter up here in the north

  disturbs me so much that I argue with my boss

  about killing wild bison, just to starve the Arapaho,

  and then I have to ride away and search

  for a city job

  at a horse-racing stable.

  Maybe I’ll gradually adapt to sleeping

  indoors.

  EXILES

  EMILIA CASANOVA

  New York, 1863

  Cubans and Puerto Ricans, all of us gather

  in Brooklyn, or on West 29th Street, to speak

  of rising up against Spain and uniting

  in the struggle

  for women’s

  suffrage—our right

  to vote!

  Meanwhile, our young men go willingly

  into the United States army, fighting

  on the side of the Union,

  uniting

  against slavery.

  SONGBIRD

  TERESA CARREÑO

  Washington, DC, 1863

  We came to this country from Venezuela