El "rejistro": Una pedagogía radical

La BIBLIOTECA es

un archivo de conocimientos

y el DICCIONARIO

el Protocolo en que están rejistrados

la Imprenta lleva el rejistro

Poner impedimento á la Imprenta

es anular la Escritura

Prohibir libros nuevos

es prohibir la Importación de conocimientos

Condenar libros conocidos

es desmembrar el depósito

Los Conocimientos son PROPIEDAD PUBLICA

Puede renunciarla una jeneración

pero nó privar de ella á las siguientes

no lea; pero no oculte ni destruya

Me ha llamado la atención como un objet trouvé el breve texto arriba, de Inventamos o Erramos por Simón Rodríguez, edición de Monte Avila, Caracas, 1988, p. 112.

Ortografía y mayúsculas arbitrarias, márgenes al centro, falta de puntación: es así la escritura del controversial educador ambulante Simón Rodríguez (1769-1854), maestro de Simón Bolívar y fundador infatigable de escuelas por toda Sudamérica. Viajó y predicó, además, por los Estados Unidos y Europa durante un cuarto de siglo haciéndose llamar Samuel Robinson. El meollo de su pedagogía--escuelas mixtas abiertas a niños y niñas de todas las clases y etnias, con un enfoque empírico a través del estudio obligatorio de textos originales, de las artes prácticas (carpintería y albañilería, por ejemplo), de las lenguas indígenas por encima del latín, y de la anatomía por medio de desnudos en vivo--indignó a las autoridades civiles, académicas, y eclesiásticas de las recien nacidas repúblicas latinoamericanas. Rodríguez mismo reconoció lo avanzado de su metodología al incluir en su libro los supuestos comentarios de otros: "¡es mucho lo que se ha adelantado!" (104). Y efectivamente, sus bases teóricas junto a sus prácticas, desafortunadamente poco publicadas y leídas en su época, aunque a mí me parezcan atinadas me imagino que aún huelen a insoportables para muchos. Hay que luchar para que llegue la tan atrasada época de Simón Rodríguez.

Nomelodés

Desatinaste
descomunal
desparpajo.
Despapaye tan
despiadado
desconozco.
Desafortunadamente,
despejaste
desconveniencias a
decenas.
¡Qué desmadre!

Chalchiuhcuicatl

I heard a Jade Song calling to me: Let me on stage, I need to speak with my husband. 

And so she came.

(The following is an excerpt from Time for Chocolate.)

TECAYEHUATZIN

[...] Yes, time for chocolate! Sustenance for us, as we, in turn, offer sustenance to the gods! Turn after turn after time after time, the cycle of the sun is the cycle of the heart. Blood! Time for blood! Time--ongoing, without cataclysm--in exchange for blood! It is the blood that inebriates the gods and for which they agree that the sun will rise, the rain will fall, the corn will grow, the cacao will blossom. Chocolate: gift of the gods. Blood: chocolate of the gods.

(Enter CHALCHIUHCUICATL house left with a basket of cacao beans. She scoops the beans and lets them run through her fingers as she speaks)

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

Dear husband, I interrupt you. I remind you that we have many expenses, yet the servant says you told him to double the amount of cacao for chocolate. Why is this?

TECAYEHUATZIN

Dear wife, you know my friends are coming. Must the value of friendship be measured in cacao? If so, then there are not enough trees to produce the cacao needed to m...

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

(interrupting)

To measure the value of your friendship. I know this, dear husband. But the xocolatl does not keep like the dry cacao beans do. The chocolate must be drunk when it's prepared.

TECAYEHUATZIN

And that it shall. The gullet of my friend Xayacamach is as prodigious as his flower songs.

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

Would you allow me to grind up so much of our savings for a gathering of my friends?

TECAYEHUATZIN

(considering)

Yes. Preferably if it were to celebrate your friendship with flower song.

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

Not everything is flower song, you know.

TECAYEHUATZIN

No, dear wife, but ask yourself: are gossip and complaint the best for painting friendship?

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

They are only natural.

TECAYEHUATZIN

And flower song is not--it must be learned and crafted, which is why it is the more precious. Flower song is a gift to please our senses, and to enliven the divine spirit. Through flower song we cast light on our condition, on our knowledge that we are here for only a little moment. As you say, dear wife: the chocolate must be drunk when it's prepared.

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

I hope you also told the servant to add only a little mushroom, only a little morning glory.

TECAYEHUATZIN

You know me as you should. Sensuality without debauchery.

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

I know you as I should. I know you wish I were as gifted in flower song as Macuilxochitl.

TECAYEHUATZIN

There you err, my precious song of jade. As you say, not everything is flower song. I do not wish for more than I receive from the divine spirit: this moment, here with you, here with me.

CHALCHIUHCUICATL

(embraces her husband)

I believe you because I so choose.

TECAYEHUATZIN

Do you hear how wise you are?

[...]

alto astral

ela não voa:

ressoa

o alto astral

descomunal

que ela tem

que ela nem

percebe porque é natural

nela, esse seu vaivém

abarca todo o pessoal

e levanta quem

se sente mal 

ela abre espaços além

do que pode alcançar ninguém
pelos fluxos de luz 
que ela produz

e todos ficamos

alvoroçados

da boa,

como alaranjados

num alvor enaltecedor,

transparente,

transcendente,

numa harmonia de ondas,

umas curtas, outras longas,

que vibrando assim todos fazemos

concerto de cores

conjunto de gemas

e os versos giram em universo

afinado, azul aceso

tudo porque ela decidiu

me saudar e me sorriu

divina graça que ela tem

alto astral que nem ninguém

mas ela não voa:

ressoa

En el Cerro Santa Lucía

Espejos hechos caudales, lluvias transparentes
nos iluminan en el Cerro Santa Lucía:
por el cielo harto, cristalino, de mediodía
vibran ondas intensas, andinas, relucientes.

Subimos y bajamos, en curvas cual serpientes,
entre estatuas, arcos, fuentes, untada alegría.
Con prisa o con pereza llega la epifanía
de vernos y conocernos entre tantas gentes.

Y en el silencio de la cima, el gran panorama:
la ciudad tendida, la cordillera pintada;
la brisa que nos abraza, a veces aun a besos,

y nos susurra, con cosquillas, el común drama
de la jornada del sol por la noche tapada
y la sangre fugaz que surge de nuestros huesos.

Celestial Excavations

It's only a slight exaggeration to say that you can't trip over a stone in Mexico City without uncovering an Aztec artifact. The 2006 discovery of the Tlaltecuhtli is only the latest monolithic find, at a site that may yet reveal the tomb of Ahuizotl (8th Tlatoani of Mexico-Tenochtitlan 1486-1502).

Here is a list of just a few of the most recognized monoliths from the Valle de Anahuac (Mexico City and surrounding areas), with certain data as I could find them (location and year unearthed, dimensions, material, and Wikipedia or Flickr image links):

(sun) Tonatiuh / Sun Stone ("Aztec Calendar"): Mexico City Zócalo, 1790
24 tons, 11.7 ft. diameter, black basalt

(earth) Coatlicue: Mexico City Zócalo, 1790
[weight], 8.5 ft tall, [material]

(plants) Xochipilli: side of the volcano Popocatéptl near Tlalmanalco, Estado de México, mid-1800s
[weight], approx. 4 ft. x 2 ft., volcanic rock

(rain) Tlaloc: Coatlinchan, Estado de México, 1964 or earlier
125 tons, [height], [material]

(moon) Coyolxauhqui: Mexico City Zócalo, at the foot of what was then discovered to be the Templo Mayor, 1978
8 tons, 10.6 x 10.1 ft, volcanic rock

(earth) Tlaltecutli: Mexico City Zócalo, to one side of the Templo Mayor, 2006
12 tons, 13.7 x 11.9 ft, pink andesite

When the Sun Stone was unearthed in 1790, it was something of a second discovery; a Spanish priest had ordered it buried sometime in the mid-16th century. For many years into the 19th century, the Sun Stone was displayed on an outside wall of the Mexico City Cathedral! Scholars don't always agree on the Sun Stone's iconography - some think the central image is the face of Tlaltecutli, not Tonatiuh. Some believe the twin fire serpents (xiuhcoatl, a kind of divine weapon) forming the outermost circle are the gods Quetzalcóatl and Ehécatl, others believe they are Xiuhtecutli and Tonatiuh.

In any case what strikes me is the inversion implied by excavations into the earth to find representations of the moon, the sun, and other phemonena of the sky: it's all cosmic dust in the wind.

Meditação sobre o Tesão

Aquele estado de tesão
é uma deliciosa tensão,
uma enorme provocação!
Paquero e desejo são
a adiação
a prolongação -
é uma perpetuação,
um momento que não é não:
é uma monumentação
da possibilitação.

De Exu vem a inspiração
para meditar nas chamas do tesão.
É ele que paira no portão –
vai entrar sim ou vai sair não?
De uma mão ou outra mão,
seja gato ou seja cão,
seja inverno ou seja verão -
os contrários em união
quando todas as opções dão!

A dúvida que dura um tempão
torna-se uma forte afirmação.

Paradise Truncated

I see them approach*
the way that the light through the folia*...it's gold*
the way that the mist from the waterfall
their bronze and burnished skin uninterrupt*
then, parrots: concentrated explosions of color and sound
monkeys of several kin*, a sloth: kinetic and potential, spring from / hang from
abundan* trees reach for light
round, sticky, sweat*, the sun perm*
butterflies bubble, resplend transcend efferv*
I see them kiss, embrace in the waterfall:
an instan* washes over an instan* to sculpt a constan*
kinetic springs, finds potential
I see them, their torsos, their trun* forc* the water down new riv*
which way to go, what will be*
what are they searching for
have they found parad*

Love and Light in Brazil

Two Poems by José Carlos Limeira

The supercool online literary magazine qarrtsiluni is featuring my translations of two poems by my friend and collaborator José Carlos Limeira. The poems, "Apagões" ("Blackouts") and "Mágica" ("Enchantment") came online today as part of the magazine's issue on Translation (January-April 2011). You can listen to José Carlos and to me as you read along here!

You can also listen to two of my colleagues, Huiwen Zhang and Victor Udwin, performing Huiwen's translations "Meditation on the Road: Chinese Wartime Sonnets by Feng Zhi."

Pirámide de Nichos

Calendario masivo es

La Pirámide de los Nichos en El Tajín:

trescientos sesenta y cinco nichos

oscuros, con restos de pintura oscura,

que ahuecan, elegantemente alineados,

los siete pisos del monumento como cerro
entre cerros del bosque lluvioso.

Me inspira a construir, aunque sea de mentiritas,

mi propia pirámide: un arreglo de nichos

iluminados, que no tenebrosos,

nichos como los bloques en blanco del calendario,

nichos como los bloques con los que jugamos de niños.

Y sobre todo, llenarlos.

¿Con qué llenar los nichos?

Con todo lo que sea, una selección ecléctica y cambiante,

sin orden fijo, sin significado ordenado,

una aproximación a la inundación de los días,

una serie de retratos encuadrados:

un trombón, un orangután, Adán y Eva desnudos,

una mazorca de cacao, una biblioteca,

una guacamaya que no se deja, 

una anaconda que se desborda,

una canasta de naranjas y toronjas,

tú, yo, ella, él, un huizache, una cascada,
una sirena, un centauro, un abrazo,

un niño con una pelota,

un laptop, una hamaca, una taza de café,

un atardecer otoñal, una fuente barroca,

un globo terráqueo, un eclipse de mosaico,

un martillo con maderos y clavos, una liana en flor,

un comal con tortillas, una olla con sueños,

un cofre de tesoro, un amor de lejos,

una amistad extraña, un amuleto de jade, 
una gota de lluvia, una chispa

una epifanía repentina

y una iluminación-relámpago,

muchos relámpagos del trueno que es el tajín,

lluvia de ideas, tempestad de conceptos,

anegación fecunda de días que son ideas

con sus noches que son sus nichos

encandilados por los rayos de la tormenta cerebral.

Escalar, barajar, amontonar y derrumbar, agregar y descartar:

imágenes que centellean como constelaciones posdiluvianas
imágenes que se encadenan como arco-íris danzante
imágenes ensombrecidas por las nubes negras del horizonte,
imágenes enlodadas, enterradas, y excavadas,
ostentadas en algún museo que, a su vez, 
quedará en ruinas alumbradas
bajo la lluvia.

Súplica do Boto

Se recebesse o boto

o poder de falar por um minuto,

diria sem rodeios:

"Sim, meu sorriso é permanente
e gosto demais da cor rosa.

E sim, sempre achei engraçados

aqueles contos que me retratam

como o libertino amazônico,

culpável de qualquer

gravidez

"misteriosa."

Mas ora gente,

suficiente tenho com

esquivar 

redes de pesca e hidrelétricas

navegar 

entre poluição e motores de lancha,

então

não abuse do meu

comportamento amistoso.

Deixe de me

matar de me

massacrar e de me

despedaçar:

Meu olho, arrancado, não atrai mulheres.

Meu pênis, desmembrado, não dá para feitiço varonil.

Minhas nadadeiras, separadas, não oferecem remédio nenhum.

Minha carne desfeita: ah, minha carne sim é boa 

para piracatinga alimentar.

Mas que seja quando eu morrer, 

finalmente, 

naturalmente,

não porque você me mate agora!

Rio sem botos é como boto sem dentes,

é um desequilíbrio descomunal.

Deixe de me matar.

Eu e você somos seres inteiros e complexos, 

tanto como o rio.

Obrigado."

Ouviu?

Novelas I'd Like to See

Attention Latin American telenovela producers:

PLOT IDEAS!! FEEL FREE TO STEAL THEM!!

Although I don't have much time to watch novelas, there have been a few over the years that I've enjoyed tuning in to view with my family (plus + great language practice!), such as Catalina y Sebastián (Televisión Azteca), América (Rede Globo), or the more recent En Nombre del Amor (Televisa). Telenovelas form a huge part--the most profitable--of Latin American primetime and are exported not only within Latin America but all over the world. The Rede Globo machine in Brazil, and certain Televisa efforts in Mexico (Carla Estrada productions), set the bar for excellence in all respects: filmography, acting, script, costumes, music. The best novelas not only excel in these areas but also engage with the viewers' social, political, and economic concerns and desires. A few suggestions for (tele)novelas I'd like to see:

(1) Setting: Chiapas, 1994. Daughter of rich hacendado falls for daring, but poor, Zapatista revolutionary. Yes, the same old formula, but it would be a way of getting a Mexican telenovela to actually deal with political realities in Mexico.

(2) Setting: Contemporary Brazil. Two non-white Brazilians, of different ethnic and geographic backgrounds, meet and fall in love. Protagonists' gender: open.

(3) Any novela produced in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, etc. that dares to set its story outside the country of origin. Brazil (Rede Globo) seems to be the only country that does this with any frequency, and I admire what it implies about the country's imagination and ambition. They've set novelas in Morocco, Greece, Mexico, even the US (for example, New Mexico of the Old West in the singular farce Bang Bang).

(4) A Mexican novela that dares to feature a main relationship that is not heterosexual.

(5) More of the lushly filmed Mexican historical novelas, like Carla Estrada's Amor Real and Alborada, but more proactively rehistoricized regarding women's roles and the roles of indigenous and African characters.

(6) More of the brightly comic, and satirical, Colombian novelas in the tradition of Betty la Fea and Pedro el Escamoso (and the current Chepe Fortuna, with its bald, though secondary, satire of Chavez's Venezuela).

More ideas / más ideas / mais idéias?