Pedro M. :

The book Las historias prohibidas del Pulgarcito (The forbidden stories of Hop o' My Thumb) waswritten by the Salvadorian Roque Dalton. This book had a lot of influence on me because of the last poem of the book that is called Ya te aviso (I had warned you).

This book was with me on May 4th 2006 as I was involved in a manifestation in the village of San Salvador Atenco, where I have been kept by the police, tortured and put in jail. At that moment of detention the backpack that I had disappeared and when I got out of jail, I thought that I would never get my things back. Suddenly, I received an anonymous call from someone who said that he had found my things on the street. Obviously, my money was stolen, all of my belongings were stolen, but this book was still in the backpack.

Before that I got separated from this book, I was a person. When I got close to it again, my life had changed completely. Before separating myself from this book, my life was in a phase where my youth was fulfilled as well as my freedom. When I found this book again, my freedom was reduced and my happiness lessened. All of this because of the conflict in which I got involved in…

And, the book in itself has a huge signification. Here, in the first pages, I did very simple drawings that were very similar to the one in the original book. There are photocopied editions of the book, and since this one is not, I tried to make it look similar to the original with the drawings of Roque Dalton. I made some annotations on the side of the pages, kind of like a collage, and in the end, I wrote things triggered by the feelings of what I have gone through, the one I was before and after, away and close again to this book.

So, the importance that it has is that in this crucial moment of my life, I realized that I was influenced by it, and that even my way to react at that moment has been indirectly lead by this book. When I came back to it, when my life was already transformed, the book meant something different to me.

 

 

On May 4th 2006, I was in San Salvador Atenco to take part in a manifestation about the cultivator that had been arrested for selling flowers on the street. The government had forbidden them the right to sell on the street.

As a student, I learned about what was happening, so I went to this place to manifest. As we were manifesting, 6000 policeman arrived, they arrested us, they tortured us, they tied us up and  they put us in jail. Being there as a prisoner, I met people with whom I shared these very difficult moments in my life, something that brought a change, something that gave a complete turn to my life.

When I came out, I got my freedom back after having paid a good amount of money. The story is very sad because the leaders, as of today, are still prisoners charged with 120 years of jail. And me, I am still on probation. In any case, when I go back and open the pages of this book, it brings back to my mind this morning of May 4th 2006, which has been tragic for me. Taking back the words of Roque Dalton in Ya te aviso, which are full of courage and in the same time of sadness: “I will have to put you in bed, feed you of a bread of dynamite and water, wash you with cocktail Molotov”. These words, as they inspire me strength, fill me up with sorrow.

 

 

YA TE AVISO…

Patria idéntica a vos misma
pasan los años y no rejuvenecés
deberían dar premios de resistencia por ser salvadoreño
Beethoven era sifilítico y sordo
pero ahí está la Novena Sinfonía
en cambio tu ceguera es de fuego
y tu mudez de grutería

Yo volveré yo volveré
no a llevarte la paz sino el ojo del lince
el olfato del podenco
amor mío con himno nacional
voraz
ya le comiste el cadáver de don Francisco Morazán a Honduras
y hoy te querés comer a Honduras
necesitás bofetones
electro-shocks
psicoanálisis
para que despertés a tu verdadera personalidad
vos no sós don Rafael Meza Ayau ni el Coronel Medrano
habrá que meterte en la cama
a pan de dinamita y agua
lavativas de coctel Molotov cada quince minutos
y luego nos iremos a la guerra de verdad
todos juntos
para ver sí así como roncas duermes
como decía Pedro Infante
novia encarnizada
mamá que parás el pelo