born in puerto rico

, i was born in puerto rico, we came here when i was a child, before i reached the age of sixteen, i was running with the gang and we were wild, he keeps looking but he don't recognize me. some guy from lexington or park, red beans and rice from kitchen windows, supper-time and the barrio is dark. no one knows you like i do, nobody can know your heart the way i do, no one can testify to all that you've been through, but i will. i was born in puerto rico, and my blood is taino, spanish caribbean my soul, we came here wearing summer clothes in winter, hearts of sunshine in the cold, your family rented this apartment, you'd watch the street lamps from your perch, in the sacramental hour your stepfather in black, preached the fire of the pentecostal church, no one knows you like i do, nobody can know your heart the way i do, no one can testify to all that you've been through, but this will. i was born in puerto rico, came here when i was a child. small change and sunlight, then i left these streets, for good. my days as short as they were wild. i'm carlos apache, angel soto, frenchy cordero, babu charlie cruz, your features blurred in every grainy photo, and fading headline of the daily news, wiltwyck school for criminal children, auburn, brooklyn house of d. dannemora, sing-sing, attica, greenhaven, twenty years inside, today you're free. you cannot even read your story, the pages piling up in shame, before the words released you, the guard would, kill the light, the night you took the capeman for your name. i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, i was born in puerto rico, yo naci en puerto rico, yo naci en puerto rico, mi corazon es puerto r.ico, mi alma es puerto rico