mayamerica

Washington DC

Mayamerica Cortez has been included as one of El Salvador's Literary Treasures as a Woman Poet and Writer in the National Antology of Femenine Poetry of El Salvador.

INDIGENOUS LAMENT (LAMENTO INDIGENA)

Spanish transtlation/traducción en español en:

www.palabravirtual.com

To all Immigrants.

(Translated by Lic. René Cárdenas)

When my deep roots ache

when the earth's own cry

open in multitudinous rows,

calls me in soft voices.

When the wagon's deep ruts

and the whispers of the farms

the trembling of the "guarumos"

of the cacao in flower

and the sound of the river and the waterfall

are a torrent of indigenous lament

about my Pipil and Mayan ancestry

about my cinnamon color

and my hair of black accents.

When I am a stranger in the land

of Nordic origins

I feel the stab of hot knives

of foreign customs in my flesh

of computerized technologies

and the cold of blue pupils

strangest to my Latino eyes.

When struggling in a savage

yet sophisticated jungle

of complicated buildings

with hundreds of glass counter windows

super highways

subways and underground trains

soup in cans, meal in cans

machines which wash everything

clean everything

drink everything

swallow everything!

I remember that I am pure clay of Ilobasco

a piece of Panchimalco

something significant from

Nahuilingo and Nahuizalco

and everything of Caluco,

Guaymango and Zacatecoluca.

Through my veins flow the coconut's water

I am Sonsonateca with my birthplace

melded to my soul

as a raves clings to the hill's brow

when a firm machete's blow

voraciously violates the coconut's curvature

and delivers the delicious coconut's water

effervescent as cannot be ever delivered

by a Coca Cola machine!!!

Then I leave my roots of powder

and cry to my ancestors

which is a soft and quiet sorrow

which purifies me of this renounce

imposed by the will and instincts

to survive

in the constant assimilation of changes.

I allow my soul to be in

ecstasy

and return

to my "Four Hundred Wells of Water."

My feelings, chopped by the war,

returns impotently toward Atlacatl

and Quetzalcoatl

towards my King of the Jaguars

and Moctezuma

imploring for rescue

of our indigenous race.

My branches and fibers intertwine

crying out

that I am indigenous

an indigenous of fine clothes

authentic Pipil

descendent of the Mayas

who was born in an America over here

of the twentieth century.

www.mayamerica.com

The poetry of this talented writer is like a tenuous caress that provokes great joy for

the beauty of her words, but also each poem is a powerful shotgun that moves the

soul with its profoundness. "My name is Love, my last name Liberty, and my

country is the world," said Mayamerica Cortez, and immediately she

remembered some words of the many poems that she had written. To me, though,

they were not words but "birds" that when you open the cage, escape anxious to fly.

The poetry of Mayamerica is like this: thoughts that "fly;" immediately, as you hear

them, for they capture the poetic spirit that we all keep in the bottom of our heart.

Mayamerica Cortez is a Salvadoran writer living in Washington, D.C. since 1980.

At this time she has six more books unpublished, which include 700 or more poems.

In 1994 she started publishing her poems in newspapers of El Salvador,

Washington DC and the USA and began receiving national and international

recognition for her beautiful poetry.

She published her first poetry book "Fire of Solitude"

(LUMBRE DE SOLEDAD) in 1976. She has published two more books:

"Nostalgias and Solitude" (NOSTALGIAS Y SOLEDADES) in 1995 and "Songs

of the Lover and of Love" (CANTOS DEL AMANTE Y DEL AMOR) in 1996.

Although Mayamerica Cortez is looking towards the existential solidarity, she

describes in her poem "Indigenous Lament" what all immigrants have experienced

living away for their homeland when impacted by the cultural shock. "Indigenous

Lament" is one of the most beautiful poems that I have ever heard, not only

because of its melody, but also because of the penetrating way in which she

describes how our cultural heritage endures over, though we live far away from our

homeland. Carlos Alcíbar--"La Opinion" Newspaper

Mayamerica Cortez. Born in San Salvador, El Salvador.

To purchase her books or make contact with Mayamerica write to: mayamerica@comcast.net