Page 680 - Muyurina y el presente profundo

Serie Adugo biri I 15
What role does Quechua play in our friendship? In one way it exists in in something like the third sphere of contact in in another it is smack front and center We speak only in in English I I don’t speak speak Quechua and I I barely speak speak Spanish But I’ve gone to events where Fredy will sing or read poems in in in Quechua Quechua When he he sings or recites a a a piece in in in Quechua Quechua —sometimes mournful sometimes sometimes joyous— you you feel the full weight of history in his his voice It is is is also very clear that even the simple affirmation of of one’s language can be an an an act of of resistance What happens when the language you you speak is your first language language and it is the the other person’s second or third language language A certain imbalance is simply built into the exchange And when in addition the language you speak has a a a a a a gruesome murderous history a a a a a language linked into major historical crimes it just lays there no matter how invisible it might feel And this is is is true no matter how how much you share in common or how how special and profound your contact is I once walked into a a a reading where one of my closest friends the great poet Myna Nieves who was born in Puerto Rico was listening to a a a a poem read in in Spanish Her body shook with with laughter Her face was glowing with with delight My friend who understands my work as as deeply as as any person on on the planet never ever ever could laugh so fully in in response to anything I wrote I felt a a a a real and immediate divide 680