Como Nosotros

Time:
Take me back to the days when I ran with my dog,
To the Chinese store,
To buy ten cents of bread and five of white cheese!
Return me to the afternoons when my grandmother's hand
Led me to the end of West 13th Street, in Santa Ana,
To see the South Sea!
Take me back to the nights when the scent of jasmine
Planted in cans,
Spilled from the balconies,
Through all the streets of San Felipe!

When I was a child, my neighborhood was a Continent,
And every street was a path to adventure.
On every corner an unforgettable memory,
In every room a hope, already mature.
On our round trips to the stars
We were pirates, acrobats, and cowboys.
Our poverty never conquered money,
But in the houses, the 'I can' was never surrendered!
I went to bed with the faith of a winner.
I woke up with the peace of one who learned
That the important thing in this life is to try.
What it costs is what I won't forget!
I grew up fighting, like the others,
Those who grew up like me,
From humble cradle, with their fortune made of dreams,
Like me, like me.

My adolescence was not easy to bear:
Like trying to tie a shoe while walking.
Our innocence retreats upon understanding that,
In real life,
Injustice can beat truth.
Family dies, first love leaves us,
What was once affirmed becomes confused,
A move leaves the old neighborhood behind,
The mustache grows and so does responsibility...
I worked and wondered if others, like me,
Being so young, felt my loneliness,
If our souls still shared the illusion
That the boy would always triumph in the end.
I wondered if there were still others,
Like us, like me,
Still resisting, still not giving up,
Still remembering, like me, like me.

And in the curve of the years I found myself
With the boys I used to play with,
With whom I walked paths of stars,
When the horizon was a shortcut over the sea.
And we recall memories with coffee,
And we still address each other informally, not formally,
And we reaffirm the lesson that time gives:
That when there is life, there is always possibility!
The struggle continues, and survives like us,
Like me,
And in other neighborhoods there are other children like us,
Like me,
Like me!
Chorus: Like us