Bolivia Streets La Paz

Bolivian Streets (La

Paz)

-------------------------

("And

hardened in the furnace fires of

Bolivian streets")

We descended

from kings/

Immortal lineage the

indian brings/

When the blood of

his body is deeper than the source

of a spring/

We're rooted to the

earth/

More specifically to the

path/

from Tierra del Fuego down

to Canada on the map/

...The

winds, of change, have come/

But

my people have still remained

strong in the face of

adversity/

I'm mixed blood,

almost every color occurs in

me/

The culmination of the

genetic set of diversity/

Inside

the Mayan university, where they

taught theories of math,

engineering structural city

plans/

To the mound-builders of

Cahokia/

Long as Andean millenia

and the history of Bolivia/

To

the city-states of Nasca/

Part of

a free-trade pact, spanning

Patagonia to Alaska/

To the

Caribbean, Blackfoot and through

Nebraska/

For Centuries, before

anybody conceived of

NAFTA/

..This land was densely

populated in fact/

With more

peoples in the Americas than

Europe at that/

With greater

population density than India

packed/

Until the epidemics

attacked on first contact/

Like

n...

Chorus:

-------

(x2)

I admit, it's easier to

preach than live it/

I almost

lost my life as a

Christian/

Lying on my back in

derision/

Hardening my heart in

my condition/

You never knew

it/

Because you never

listen/

Hate given over the fate

that people were given/

..And the

faith that I wasn't living/

But I

refused to remain calm/

..Thought

of myself as strong/

Your mind'll

play tricks on you when the

devil's got your arm/

And you're

alone in a world of harm/

With

nothing to lean on but a knife and

an ice grill like bronze/

...I

thought I understood the church's

past/

Till I was face forward in

the reality of brutality/

Seeing

indigenous people in

poverty/

Because of a

colony/

Consecrated by religious

authority/

Now I understand the

hurt/

And why the people of earth

will curse the church/

As if it

were dirt/

(chorus)

Walking

the streets of La Paz/

Giving

pause to every thought of Western

progression you've ever

had/

Inside societies that were

ravaged hundreds of years/

You

can see another side of humanity

that appears/

And another side of

yourself when you look in the

mirror/

It's enough to make you

want to repent/

When you see a

grown man cover his face as he's

working for rent/

To try to hide

the shame of shining your shoes

for tweleve cents/

But/

When

that's the option you got, gotta

take it/

Immigration laws, gotta

break it/

Especially when your

kids are barely able to sleep from

hunger pains/

And you know it

stays the same the longer that you

remain/

..You'll become an easy

target for blame/

But surviving,

you gotta break the rules playing

in this unfair game/

Know there's

more to life than driving a car

with a fancy name/

So I spit a

flame to create change.