Clean Wash Center at golden hour, 2017
Aside from hospitals and grocery stores— community laundromats are also considered essential businesses during this shelter-in-place in California. As my apartment complex lacks sufficient facilities for laundry machines, many of we residents do our laundry at laundromats around the block here in Excelsior, San Francisco. (Image descriptions, top to bottom: my local laundromat, Clean Wash Center, at golden hour; 10PM with Tito Leo at Clean Wash Center, 2016).
Recently, as part of National Poetry Month, and the #Decolonize30over30 movement, Ate / Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales of SFSU and Pinxy Educational Partnerships invited me as part of a collective of 48 Pinays to collaborate on her Morning Mourning Poetry Series Poem #8. Ate Allyson, Dr. Jocyl Sacramento of Stanislaus State and educator Lauren Daus of June Jordan HS compiled our poems. I thank my family for helping me with the Filipino-Tagalog translation. I want to continue improving my Tagalog literacy through writing and reading, as this linguistic connection to my family’s culture sustains me. This poem takes elements from a religious prayer etched into my memory and recited during de facto cultural rituals.
I dedicate this poem to the workers at our local laundromats, past, present and future; my family members who work in the health care field; my family members who lived through unfair labor practices as farmworkers, retail and transportation workers n the Philippines, here in the U.S. and across the diaspora as OFWs— among many essential workers who sustain our well being during this pandemic. These essential workers remain at risk of compromising their health due to various factors, including insufficient labor rights and protections. — Erina Alejo
An Invocation for Essential Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic
March 2020
Hail, my Elder Laundromat Attendants,
full of Grace, may our Ancestors be with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst those at the front lines
and blessed is the toils of thy labor,
but especially, thy wellness.
Holy children, queers, and descendants of the
Indigenous, Migrant, Asylum Seeker, Refugee and Immigrant,
organize and hold accountable those responsible
for implementing better health and labor conditions.
Now and beyond our mortality and the
25th hour of our critical consciousness.
Amen
Pananalangin sa mga Napakamahalagang Manggagawa Sa Pandemya ng COVID-19
2020 ng Marso
Aba mga Ginoo and Ginang Manggagawa sa Labahan,
napupuno po kayo ng Grasiya, ang ating mga Ninuno ay sumasainyo.
Bukod po kayong pinagpala sa mga napakamahalagang manggagawa
at pinagpala rin naman po ang inyong
pinaghihirapang bisig at itinatanging kalusugan.
Banal na mga Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy, Butiki, Baboy--
mga angkan ng mga Katutubo, Migrante, at mga
Nangingibang Lupaing naghahanap ng Matutuluyan--
kumilos upang tiyakin na tutuparin ng mga namamahala
ang kanilang mga tungkulin at pananagutan
sa kanilang mga manggagawa.
Ngayon at magpawalang hanggan
sa pagkamulat ng ating kamayalan.
Amen
