This is a fierce ass poem by my friend, brother, and co-Palabristas Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria. For those of you that don't know...some deep shit went down in Peru a couple of weeks ago. Indigenous people murdered for oil and natural gas. The shit is real, and it isn't right, and as much as I love Michael Jackson and think the coup in Honduras is fucked up...neither should have overshadowed the Bagua tragedy. You can hear this poem read by clicking on the Ninja in the side bar and scrolling to For the Homeland.
For The Homeland (A Poem for Bagua)
by Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
With my hands I write these words for the homeland
Today my heart stopped
My blood spilled
On land that will be given
To oil companies that will rape it
Brand it, and sell it with my name on it
Today my body is motionless on the road
With no one to claim it
Until the bullets stop flying
Until they stop crying
Because no one asked them
if they wanted to perforate their people
asked them if they wanted to witness babies dying
The ground sobbed red tears as bodies fell
Painting a brief picture of living hell
With my hands I write these words for the homeland
Today Peru lost 2-1 and
people said they played with no heart,
I know where it lays.
In Bagua
where blood mixes with brown soil
In rivers
where brothers and sisters float boca abajo.
And mothers try to identify body parts
While I am trying to identify self worth
Remembering that the blood spilled is pumping through my veins,
that the land where I was born to the land where I stand
will always be indigenous land.
Remembering.
That when we left in 88 Alan Garcia was fucking up the economy
Then ran to hide in Paris
Only to come back for a reconquista
to kill people he sees as second class
Today the bullets cried
My brothers and sister died
Media blinded to the lies
That the cowards use to hide
With my hands I write these words for the homeland
Today I died in bagua
But when my funeral comes
Don’t put me in a casket
Or bury me 6 feet under
Instead baptize me in the MaraƱon River
So my soul flows south with the blood spilled
Bury me next to the mass graves
With my eyes wide open
So i can see
What others say is not there
Then broadcast these words over radio waves
Banned for speaking the truth
Indigenas nunca son cuidadanos de segunda clase
Indigenous people are never 2nd class citizens
This is for my people
In the homeland
Fighting in the trenches
Blocking streets, police
While we overseas fight the oasis painted by white picket fences
This is for Alfredo,Pelusa, Mariana, rodrigo, camilo y Apu
Who remind me of home and fuel the purpose of what I do
for our babies, who asked why we cry at this injustice
For jose Antonio Encinas who taught me about power
And how politicians’ abuse it, we call them cowards
This for Santiago Manuin
Because 8 bullets could not stop his heart beating
His strength
His fight for his people
Their land
This is for Pizango finding refuge in Nicaragua
While his heart and spirit stays in bagua
And for the rest of us
Who are away from home
In strange lands that we can’t call our own
Some of us facing death for the first time and
Raising fists, pens, and words in defiance
To form a global alliance with you, our people.
Because borders, time zones, years, guns and oppression
Cannot stop our love for you.
Today I died in Bagua
And was reborn to use my hands to write these words for the homeland
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