Tierra Narrative

                    For Kenia Guillen & Diego de la Texera

Translation gig stuck on a word,

My dad explains Caseríos,
A bit outside,
no electricity or hospitals,

Peripheral to a canton,

the small churches made out of Tierra,
painted with cheap white limewash,
rubs off on anything that comes into contact,
my dad saw his first film in 62' projected on the sidewall of such a church
This document from el Instituto Cinematográfico de El Salvador Revolucionario
on my desk details the first tour of revolutionary cinema,
Los espectadores están sentados en la tierra,
otros en los arboles!
eyes set on this white sheet tied between two trees
to see this film directed by a Puerto Rican comrade, with
campesinos operating the cameras.
Ellos cruzando veredas,
montes,
ríos,
cañaverales under bullet fire,
I notice the composition constantly changing height,
how many died for this collective authorship?
a gift-
the future captured in rolls of celluloid
that with each use accumulate scratches, fingerprints y tierra
It’s a long-distance trek from the first to the second screening, but
the locals wanna do it and at each stop, the caravan grows a bit in number
So that when the tour ends a week later,
an initial crowd of a few dozen is now over six hundred.
Our tradition of giving posada could give this procession infinity.
Toño types this document from Chalatenango on March 13th, 1982
I open the sky of that day,
the sun, moon, and mercury were all in Pisces-
which is associated with cinema
and as I'm carrying this guerilla field letter (love letter) over from Spanish to English

I follow the hunch,
Look up at the sky,
the sun, moon, and mercury are in Pisces,
This celestial reprise transiting my first house,
It’s how I’m facing the world, and everything is passing through me
all the time.