[Intro] [Chant] (women's gang vocals, building) Bruja, they wrote. Witch, they said. We taught the daughters anyway. [Verse 1] (lead alto, driving) Before the friars we spoke between The living and the dead, the river and the rice We were the priest, the doctor, the memory They came with a cross and they named a price [Pre-Chorus] (building, toms) They burned what they could find, they renamed the rest Put our anito inside their saints to hide Hung a crucifix where the buntot pagi hung And the daughters kept teaching on the kitchen side [Chorus] (full gang vocals, belted) We are resistance with teeth Seven since the war, we were nine before They made us the monster to hold their fear The Virgin downstairs is one of ours. She wears their dress. [Verse 2] (lead) They said the babaylan splits, she cannot be holy So the people put the fear on her back Some of us split from the curse they laid Some because the body remembers the track [Bridge] (chant breakdown, then build) Three times in eighty years we sat in this room Forty-eight, seventy-one, and today One bound the wing to a man who could carry The other two are stones we visit and pray [Chorus] (full, huge) We are resistance with teeth Older than the galleon, older than the crown The safest place to hide what they tried to burn Is the closet in the church they built us down [Outro] (chant, fade) The Virgin is one of ours. She wears their dress. [End]
