"Si Adelita quisiera ser mi esposa,
si Adelita fuera mi mujer,
le compraría un vestido de seda
para llevarla a bailar al cuartel."

Perched on the train's wooden stepladder, your big
black eyes dart left
first, then
right,
left,
then right,calloused hands holding firmly onto the handlebars
lestyour feet become entangled in the ruffles of your long
white skirt, the yellow rebozo flying behind you
where the other soldaderas sit
     or stand
among straw baskets filled with tortillas and a few
tomatoes, aguacates, corn, rice, coffee and sugar.
And today's laundry, bleached white under the Mexican sun. Waiting
to hear the whistle and see the smoke of departure,
what
do you see Angela? Is
the enemy nearby or
are you safe for now?  Where is your compañero this morning?
sleeping inside the train, resting from a long
trek in the mountains the day before - or -
fighting as we speak, for a just tomorrow?

***

I don't need a man's organs to be a soldier, Angela Jimenez told the general
who protested her presence in the army.  And
I wouldn't hesitate to blow out the enemy's brains
if I have to.   Wrapped in her purple sarape, rifle in one arm and
baby in the other, she offered the infant her breast.   And later,
carried the wood and the water into the village, the women
always the first to enter a town, to tend the fire and feed the men
who followed.  Nights always found her on the field cot, unfolded and
ready.

***

Tomorrow the soldiers will round them up, four
or five
or six
in a tight circle of rope, their flesh bulging, standing among the dry logs
of the fast burning fire that will ignite their muslin petticoats first,
their hair next, the smell of burnt flesh flooding the fields and
the mountains, carried in the wind as a secret message.
They will not cry nor plead.  As the last tongues of flame leap upward,
they will yell
hijos de puta,  you will die like the sons of whores that you are,
broken skulls and
bullet-ridden breasts piled high
in one scorched heap.

"Adelitas" was the name given to the women who accompanied the male soldiers during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. They served as companions as well as helpers, cooking, cleaning, and serving as look-outs for the army. They were also called "soldaderas."