“You Idlers! You wasters!
You fashion plates! You sit and sip
your wine while the naked back
of an unprotesting soldier of Christ
is lashed with the whip!
“You — who boast of the
blood of Aragorn and the
inheritance of Castile —
make merry while, all
about you, injustice
seethes!
“The heaven kissed hills
of your native California
swarm with the sentinels
of oppression! Are your
pulses dead? Thank God
mine is not — and I pledge
you my blood’s as noble
as the best!
“No force that tyranny
could bring would dare
oppose us — once united.
Our country’s out of joint.
It is for us cabalieros, and
us alone, to set it right!”
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 