June

The conquest of Latin-American:

Divide and conquer is an old truth. When I was younger and lived in the United States or was passing through in church gatherings of the sort people would often ask why Latin-Americans were so divided. At the time I don’t really remember what my answer was, its a difficult question. I’m a little older now and I’ve come up with some of my own theories and answers. To answer these questions two things must be taken into consideration. First you must know your history then you must understand the importance of identity.

…How we learned to hate that language that robbed us that cut open holes in every thing that we were until the day they arrived! In this time they have a similar language to theirs but it is sweeter, with some of our own intonations. I wouldn’t want to venture and think in terms of winners and losers…

Mujer abitada Gioconda Belli

In all of the americas before the European invasión, lived people of the earth, children of the sun. Jukiyú and the Pacha mama watched over their children. Time was marked by the moon and we were in harmony with creation. Those who came had forgotten this simple truth we are dust.

…He is tall and white like the Spaniards. However, now I know that neither she nor he is Spaniard. I wonder what race this is, this mix of invaders and Nahue…,

… To whom does the breath in their chest, their hearts belong to? ...

Mujer abitada Gioconda Belli

Christopher Columbus followed by the Spaniards came and this World was discovered or better said taken. Then we became brothers and sisters of Africa and from that point on: us and the others marked the new world. We then became criollos, mulatos, mestizos, and zambos. A new race of natives that looks upon the immigrant from ( the Dominican republic, Trinidad and Guadalupe for the Virgin Islanders, Mexicans for the USA, Bolivians and Chileans for Argentina and so on) as the others in our own time. Our blood carries with it a history of a robbed identity of a displaced people. Whether we know it or not because of this we fight to preserve the only identity we know be that what it may.

From an early age we are taught about the us and the others in the meantime we keep crashing into the sliding glass door in search of a united and just world.

We forget however that to be united does not mean that we must be the same. We might not even have the same ideas or agree. Unity comes from those precious gifts we have such as: solidarity, compassion, believing and putting yourself out there for others and more importantly love.

In June I participated in a conference on student homes. We were housed in a Seminary and the shower situation was very much like a dorm where you had two showers next to each other away from the rooms. The only problem is that if you turned on one shower while the other was on it would drastically change the temperature. When I went to take a shower someone was already in one of the showers and another participant from the conference was waiting to go in and shower. I let her know that there was another shower available if she wanted to go in. She did but the other girl show was showering asked her if she could wait she was almost done and if she went in then and there she would have no hot water. So both of us waited, and when she was done both of us went in.

The lady looked at me as I got my things ready for the shower.

“We can’t go two at a time.”

“Yes we can, we just need to talk through it. If we regulate at the same time it will work just fine.
“Ok let’s give it a try.”
And that my friends is how two people were able to shower at the same time! Obviously when I was done I let her know too so she wouldn’t get scolded when I shut my water off. Something as simple as taking a shower in a dual shower environment can show us all we need to live together. We were not the same kind of person but we had the same kind of need with communication we were able to coexist.

Cohabitation, Communications and Contencion (Sorry I haven’t found the right Word for this in English.) have been words that have come up often during my year. These words have been key in my sanity in this upside down world where words have different meaning different power.

Only when we talk to understand and respect our differences can we be truly united. When we forget this we fall into one of our oldest sins, that which drove Cane to kill his brother Abel.

Then when we ask God : Am I accountable for the things that my brother does? He will look at us and answer: Yes.

So I leave you with these words: Take off your skin…

In C.S. Lewis`s “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” The main character are on a journey visiting many different islands. On one a boy named Eustace gets turned into a large, lumpy, sad, dragon. One night the Lion Aslan appears to him ands says take off your skin. Eustace sheds a layer of scales only to find another underneath, but the Lion prompts him to continue. The shedding of skin is a painful process for the boy and even Aslan himself helps him tear off all the layers. Until he is no longer a dragon but a boy unlike the one he used to be.

Children remember:

Guakia Baba (Our Father),
turey toca (is in sky),
Guami-ke-ni (Lord of land and water),
Guami-caraya-guey (Lord of moon and sun)
guarico (come to),
guakia (us),
tayno-ti (good,tall),
bo-matun; (big,generous),
busica (give to),
guakia (us),
aje-cazabi; (tubercles,bread),
Juracan-ua (bad spirit no),
Maboya-ua (ghost no),
Jukiyu-jan; (good spirit yes),
Diosa (of God),
nabori daca (servant am I),
Jan-jan catu (So be it).