Choloani Chords by Prayers

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ After our people's enslavement _ [G#] and colonization [N] at the hands of the Castilian Empire _ in the
mid-1500s, _ and after the [F#] imposition _ of the scalpel-lock [G#] bans and laws _ which would disband
the warrior [D#m] societies, _
_ [N] make illegal the genny-flake warrior braid, _ forbid the practice of our
language, _ our customs, _ traditional [E] dances, [G#m] traditional songs, _ and any [Em] form of our original
and traditional [B] expression [C#] of spirituality and way of life under the [D#m] threat of imprisonment
and death, [C] _ there [G#] was a small diaspora of our people, _ [N] members of the disbanded warrior societies
and their families, who were not willing to bend the knee to the vice-royalty of New
Spain into the European [G#m] monarchy, who refused to accept the Christian God, their [N] captors, _
whom refused to be assimilated _ into European colonial culture, _ refused to live as slaves
and citizens of this foreign military occupation and colonial empire. _ _
This diaspora of our people were persecuted, _ labored hostiles, _ and now filled the gallows
and the cells of colonial prisons and jails of New Spain for centuries, _ _ [C#] becoming in this
new world _ _ renegades, _ _ outlaws, _ _
[F#] insurgents, [C#] now labored [D#] criminals _ [C#]
for [F#m] refusing to submit
to [Gm] colonial rule and [F] practice Western culture, _ now forced to live on the run.
_ _ [Bm] And thus, the [E]
Christianized and colonized [D] members of our [B] population began to call us
Choloani, [C#] _
a derogative term [G#] meaning those who live on the run, _ those [G] who will not conform. _
And thus was born [N] the Choloani or Cholo culture, _ _ forged and cultivated in the fires of [G#] rebellion,
_ [G] the descendants _ of the disbanded warrior societies, [G#] [F#] whom were unwilling to submit to a life of
indentured servitude, _ _ [G#]
and instead [C#m] living as outlaws, _ rebels, _ hostiles, [G#] _ challenging [F#] the
rule and authority of [C#] European monarchy and [Bm] rejecting the whole _ [G#] of European Western culture.
[N] _
_ And as the Christianized [D] and colonized members of our [N] population adopted European Western
style clothing and the way in which they were [G#] worn, and adopted Western culture and religion,
they stopped speaking the language, whose skin did [C#] not wear the _ tohaitlakhuiloli, _ [F#] the
burned warrior tattoo, _ who no [G] longer sung the old song, [G#m] _ who no [G#] longer wore the piochiti
[C] or temilo, the jenith [B] leg warrior [N] braid at the background of the head, _ who forgot their
histories and language, _ whom accepted this new colonized way of life _ as workers, as farmers,
_ _ toilers, plebeians [F#] of the European enslavers.
_ It was only the Choloanme _ _ [B] who would become known as the [C] Cholo, who continued to [C#] fight,
to resist, [G#] and continue to sanctify themselves _ in Western culture, [F#] _ [G] in the now esoteric expressions
of our original culture [C#] and warrior societies' customs that would [F#m] later define Cholo culture.
_ [E] Long shorts, _ _ symbolizing the khalsa, [B] _ _
[G] the woven agave fiber or cotton long shorts. _
_ Tubos, the long socks, _ symbolizing the xozehua, the war leggings. _
The [F] large cotton shirt, _ symbolizing the huipili blouse.
[B] The long converse belt, _ _ symbolizing the [G] tlakhoil piloni, _ [G#]
traditional sash.
[F#] _ [D#] And the panyo, or bandana [C] headband, _ symbolizing the [B] chichimeja [F#] _ ishkwaii xweklaxtli,
or traditional buckskin headband.
_ [Em] And the brucha, a large mustache,
_ [G#] symbolizing the [C#] tenihuyo, or [G] mustache, a via of [F#] zapata. _
_ _ [G#] This diaspora's descendants, _ the hostiles and renegades, [B] the Choloanme, [G#] _ Cholo, _ raised and
tempered in the colonial penal [F#] systems of New Spain, which would later [G] become the penal systems
[Fm] of Mexico, and [D#m] which would then become the prison and jail [F#] systems of the United States [N] in 1848,
is what created and cultivated _ the Choloanme, Cholo culture, _ [G#] still present in prison systems
[E] of khalifas in the Southwest, _
[F#] still present in the [C#m] oldest remaining still hostile _ [G#] barrios
and neighborhoods throughout [N] khalifas and the Southwest, _ where still lives on the very last
remnants, _ lineages, _ traditions, and customs _ of our people's ancient warrior societies
and warrior culture.
_ This _ is what it means to be a Cholo.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _