♪ (music) ♪
When I moved to America,
they shackled me, tied my hands against a wall,
changed my name,
put a label on me.
They cut my wings,
called me alien,
unwanted, illegal.
They told me to go back home
so I wandered,
hid in the shadows,
walked in the desert for 40 days,
made a refuge in a cemetery.
I hid,
dyed my hair blonde,
put on blue contacts.
I distorted my vision
so that every time I looked in the mirror, I was like them.
But it seems that they could not change my voice.
Please do not be ashamed of who I am.
This is the only way I can wake up, look in the mirror,
and like who I have become.
I beg for forgiveness in this land that I never knew,
I was told to trust them,
that DACA would save us from this hell we had been living in.
So our wings began to grow
coming out of the shadows.
Bodies began to resurrect from cemeteries.
It was the first time I was allowed to cry.
I watered the soil,
got rid of the tombstones,
harvested my crops.
As my fruit began to grow, I was deceived.
They kissed my cheek and built their walls higher,
burned our boats, took my family, mocked us, persecuted me,
took away my right to live, told me I was only meant to be asleep,
where they could not see me,
where they didn’t hear me sing, six feet under.
I was only a dreamer, better off dead.
But I refuse to be quiet because we will still climb your walls.
Burn down our boats, and we will swim oceans.
Cut down my wings, and I will grow them again.
I am not afraid.
I am no longer hiding.
I am a dreamer, and I am here to stay.
♪ (music) ♪
—
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