{"id":51264,"date":"2025-06-13T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T21:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=51264"},"modified":"2025-06-13T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T21:51:13","slug":"we-are-not-afraid-of-steel-nor-the-lies-dressed-in-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=51264","title":{"rendered":"We are not afraid of steel, nor the lies dressed in law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We Will Not Be Moved<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[ed. note: images in this post are AI generated]<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo Nos Mover\u00e1n\u201d (“We Shall Not Be Moved”) has deep roots in labor movements and civil rights struggles in both the U.S. and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spanish-speaking communities, it became a hymn of resistance\u2014against fascism, against dictatorship, and now, against state overreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music becomes the way memory and defiance survive. The beat of resistance continues, even when hope is dim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I Shall Not Be Moved”, also known as “We Shall Not Be Moved”, is an African-American slave spiritual, hymn, and protest song dating to the early 19th century American south. It was likely originally sung at revivalist camp-meetings as a slave jubilee. The song describes being “like a tree planted by the waters” who “shall not be moved” because of faith in God. Secularly, as “We Shall Not Be Moved” it gained popularity as a labor union song and a protest song of the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text is based on biblical scripture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.<\/em>
\u2014\u200aJeremiah 17:7\u20138<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.<\/em>
\u2014\u200aPsalm 1:3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.<\/em>
\u2014\u200aPsalm 62:6<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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No Nos Mover\u00e1n<\/strong>
– for the abuelas and the brave ones<\/em>
By the WLBOTT Staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the shadow of palm trees and chain-link despair,
where helicopters hum like angry locusts,
a child clutches her mother\u2019s hand
beneath a mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
Her sandals slap the pavement like a drumbeat:
We shall not be moved.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ICE vans prowl the morning fog\u2014
white teeth in the mouths of steel wolves.
They knock on doors without names,
ask questions in English with no kindness,
forgetting that fear has a long memory
and Spanish has its own gospel of survival.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But in MacArthur Park, an old woman sings.
Her voice is paper-thin but iron-strong.
She hums the tune her father sang
when he stood with the farmworkers,
back bent, hands raw,
his voice rising from the furrows:
Como un \u00e1rbol firme junto al r\u00edo\u2026<\/em>
No nos mover\u00e1n.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They took her grandson last week.
No charges. No phone call.
Only the sound of the screen door
flapping like a broken prayer.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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But still she sings.
And others join her\u2014
mariachis in Dodgers caps,
mothers with strollers and sorrow,
men with tattoos of saints and saints with tattoos.
They lock arms in the noon-day sun.
They raise banners and bread and broken hearts.
And when the line of riot shields nears,
they sing louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We are not afraid of steel,
nor the lies dressed in law.
We are rooted in this soil,
in this city,
in each other.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The wind carries the chorus down Pico,
into Boyle Heights,
across the concrete veins of the city.
It wraps itself around antennas and fire escapes,
slips into living rooms and loading docks,
finds its way to those who wonder
if they\u2019ll be next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And from every barrio,
a soft thunder answers:
No nos mover\u00e1n.<\/em>
No nos mover\u00e1n.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los \u00c1ngeles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

She is a protector of uprooted families<\/strong>, a guardian of children<\/strong>, and anchor for those facing exile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spanish for \u201cOur Lady of the Angels,\u201d this name resonates deeply in Catholic tradition and gives spiritual weight to the city itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cComo un \u00e1rbol firme junto al r\u00edo\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los Desaparecidos<\/strong>
Our Lady of the Disappeared<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stands barefoot upon the earth, cloaked in names no longer spoken aloud. In her arms: a child, a rosary, and white baby shoes\u2014symbols of innocence and loss. Her sorrow is sacred, her memory unshaken. She blesses the brokenhearted and shelters those torn from their homes. In her silence, she bears witness.
No nos mover\u00e1n.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Oraci\u00f3n a Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los Desaparecidos<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protectora de los que no tienen voz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa Madre,
que llevas en tu manto los nombres de los que se han perdido,
ac\u00f3genos bajo tu mirada compasiva.
Sost\u00e9n en tus brazos a los hijos arrancados,
a las madres que lloran,
a los padres que buscan sin descanso.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

T\u00fa que caminas descalza entre nosotros,
ra\u00edz viva en la tierra del exilio,
gu\u00edanos con tu luz de esperanza.
Haz f\u00e9rtil el suelo donde sembraron miedo,
y que florezca justicia donde hubo silencio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruega por nosotros,
los que a\u00fan buscamos,
los que a\u00fan esperamos,
los que a\u00fan creemos en el regreso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Am\u00e9n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No Nos Moveran<\/strong><\/td>
<\/td><\/tr>
Sube a nacer conmigo, hermano
Dame la mano desde la profunda zona de tu dolor diseminado
No volver\u00e1s del fondo de las rocas
No volver\u00e1s del tiempo subterr\u00e1neo
No volver\u00e1 tu voz endurecida
No volver\u00e1n tus ojos taladrados
Yo vengo a hablar por vuestra boca muerta
A trav\u00e9s de la tierra juntad todos los silenciosos labios derramados






Y desde el fondo habladme toda esta larga noche
Como si estuviera con vosotros anclado
Contadme todo, cadena a cadena, eslab\u00f3n a eslab\u00f3n, y paso a paso
Afilad los cuchillos que guardasteis
Ponedlos en mi pecho y en mi mano
Como un rio de rayos amarillos
Como un rio de tigres enterrados
Y dejadme llorar horas, d\u00edas, a\u00f1os, edades ciegas, siglos estelares

Dadme el silencio, el agua, la esperanza
Dadme la lucha, el hierro, los volcanes
Apegadme los cuerpos como imanes
Acudid a mis venas y a mi boca
Hablad por mis palabras y mi sangre

No, no, no nos moveran!
no, no nos mover\u00e1n
Como un \u00e1rbol firme junto al rio No nos mover\u00e1n

Unidos en la lucha, no nos mover\u00e1n
Unidos en la lucha, no nos mover\u00e1n
Como un \u00e1rbol firme junto al rio
No nos mover\u00e1n
No, no, no nos mover\u00e1n! no, no, no nos mover\u00e1n
Como un \u00e1rbol firme junto al rio
No nos mover\u00e1n

Unidos en la huelga, no, no, no nos mover\u00e1n
Unidos en la huelga, no, no, no nos mover\u00e1n
Como un \u00e1rbol firme junto al rio
No nos mover\u00e1n, no nos mover\u00e1n
<\/td>		Come up to be born with me, brother.
Give me your hand from the deepest depths of your widespread pain.
You will not return from the bottom of the rocks.
You will not return from your time underground.
Your hardened voice will not return.
Your tired eyes will not return.
I come to speak through your dead mouth.
Across the earth, gather all the silent lips spilled out.


And from the depths, speak to me all this long night
As if I were anchored with you
Tell me everything, chain by chain, link by link, and step by step
Sharpen the knives you kept
Put them on my chest and in my hand
Like a river of yellow rays
Like a river of buried tigers
And let me cry for hours, days, years, blind ages, stellar centuries


Give me silence, water, hope
Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes
Attach your bodies to me like magnets
Come to my veins and my mouth
Speak through my words and my blood

No, no, they won’t move us!
No, they won’t move us
Like a firm tree by the river
They won’t move us

United in the fight, they will not move us
United in the fight, they will not move us
Like a firm tree by the river
They will not move us
No, no, they will not move us! No, no, they will not move us
Like a firm tree by the river
They will not move us

United in the strike, no, no, they will not move us
United in the strike, no, no, they will not move us
Like a firm tree by the river
They will not move us, they will not move us
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