Peter Tracy: Music

Illegals: A few months ago the Minutemen came to our town to harass the day laborers. A bunch of us got together and basically intimidated them and they left. This is also a love song for my wife Marcia, a bilingual teacher at Sonoma Valley High School and a professor at Sonoma State University.

What it means to be illegal
That ain’t exactly clear
You can try to come and work here
But you always live in fear
If immigration finds you
They send you back to Mexico
And if you die trying to get here
Nobody would know

Chorus
Undocumented workers
In the shadows all the time
How can a person be illegal?
How can existence be a crime?

We want them to come and work here
But we don’t want them to stay
They should smile and do the dirty work
And then just go away
But they want the same things we do
A place to live, health care and food
Wherever did they get such a demanding attitude?
Chorus

Bilingual education has worked out successfully
A high school grad speaks Spanish
And English fluently
But bilingual programs are being cut
By the English Only crowd
They want a permanent underclass
Where success is not allowed

Chorus

They make more here than back at home
‘Cuz NAFTA saw to that
The farmers there are hungry
Agribusiness here is fat

But if they all went home tomorrow
We would find out that it’s true
These people do the work here
Nobody else will do

Chorus