Mãe [English translation]

A smile on the face, a tightness in the chest - imposed,

imperfect, like a bad spirit, narrow, "banzo"1... I've seen so many out there

A song's cry making other people laugh

Mom, I remember you cleaning the floor of those preppy boys

Such humiliation led to no revenge, it turned into redemption

A life of unpleasantness, I've witnessed no faith

How deep it is to see the world's weight on a woman's back!

Alexandre behind bars and me thinking of suicide at 8

damn, woman, where did your strenght come from?

I thought it was cool to walk with the thugs, so stupid!

I used to recite Malcolm X and not even helped you with the dishes!

I used to talk about guns, 12, night life and bad attitude

The phone calls I never made are ringing to this day!

From hanging out with Djose up to the north hemisphere

I dream with a time when women don't have to be that strong

Our hands still fit together

I ask an angel to make me company

I heard the voice of my mother in everything

I saw us in everything

We were alone in this unreliable world

I ask an angel to make me company

I heard the voice of my mother in everything

I saw us in everything

Another party, baby, it's just like "Facebook"

More than a thousand friends and I don't remember anyone

Grunge, Alice in Chains

Where you either live as Lady Gaga or die as Pepê e Neném2

Daily struggle, razor's edge. Marks? Many.

Senzala, cesareans, scars

Stretch marks, varicose veins, crisis

As Lulu3 would say: it's not always "so easy"

Resistance to us is a synonym of those women who breastfeed and at the same time need to handle the war, the tanks,

the dirty laundry, the life without softener

Bombs all the time in a random frame

which only leads to docks in a trial, not even caught up in the game!

Even my personality I took after her

Blind love, listening with the heart the light in her chest

And it describes her effect: brief, intense, immense

To the point that I feel thankful even for the flaws she may have!

The other day I found your letters in my handwriting

And my tears fell down and washed the pen

You bet it, it would be a scandal if I said that I've seen God

And He happened to be a black woman!

Our hands still fit together

I ask an angel to make me company

I heard the voice of my mother in everything

I saw us in everything

We were alone in this unreliable world

I ask an angel to make me company

I heard the voice of my mother in everything

I saw us in everything

[Dona Jacira]

The third son was born, "it's a man"

No, it's a boy

Miguel partied and drank for three days in a row

"I told you he was coming, he's here!"

Someone forewarned: our children belong to the world

No! My son is mine.

I felt the need to have something in life

I seeked the love of desired things

So I thought that I would love much more

someone who had come out of me, and nothing else

I felt like the earth: sacred!

And what a noise there was, what a mess!

My son burst out of my womb and he seemed to be saying:

"It's saturday, people!"

The nun who took him in her hands and tried to keep

his little feet together, without success

And then she said: "you naughty boy!"

"What will you call him, mama?"

- Leandro.4

1. Banzo (from the kimbundu word "mbanza", meaning "village") is what was called the feeling of melancholy towards the motherland and the aversion to the deprivation of freedom practiced against the black population in Brazil at the time of the African Diaspora. It was also a common practice of resistance to slavery. "Banzo" is a psychological process caused by the culture removal which caused the black people to become slaves taken away to distant lands.2. Pepê e Neném was a duo made up of identical twin sisters Potiara and Potiguara (also known as Pepê and Neném) who made relative success in Brazil back in 1999. They failed to repeat the success of the first album and ended up being forgotten by the public.3. Lulu Santos is a brazilian singer and guitarist4. Leandro is the real name of Emicida