Dedications

The Plight of the People

Dedicated to Don Santiago, Pablo, and Emerlindo

Don Santiago lives today in Chichipate-

A full eighty-seven years worn.

He’s lived a hard life on these lands

Seeing two sons dead and his country war-torn.

Today, he’s agreed to tell his story

Of the pain obtained on a trip back from El Estor.

Some twenty-six years back to this day,

Guatemala was deep in the trench-

A country imploding upon itself because of greed and land

Seeing a genocide occur, leaving its dead and its stench.

It was a game of war where players on the field

Attacked the innocent and the weak on the bench.

Don Santiago and his son, Pablo, were such as these

People who just wanted a fair chance at life-

To have papers assuring they owned the land

Where generations upon generations of Mayans past have thrived.

They, their ancestors, lived off the land and grew their maize

Through each year’s doubt, pain, and strife.

Not one legal document from the government existed-

Not now and not even today.

They tried everything in their power to do right thing

But no one would hear their claim.

They were ignored like many others

Until a company man came one day.

The man from the Canadian-owned nickel company dropped by

Telling father and son what they needed was in town.

So they hitched a ride in the back of a flat bed truck

Suffering the slow ride on the pitted gravel ground

Only to find they were fooled and nothing there:

No information, no paper, no sound.

So home they go, the same way they came,

Except, this time, they were stopped.

The judiciales, they came leading

Don Santiago and his son were to be taken and locked.

Knowing what was coming, father and son ran to survive

Only to have father live and son left and shot.

Don Santiago came back to retrieve his son’s body.

Pablo, a leader in the community some have said

Is now buried under a tree in an unmarked grave

Leaving the pain uncut and bled.

There are many a case like this here-

So much it has painted the land red.

Don Santiago’s story does not end here

For he lost another son to the storm.

The twenty-five year old Emerlindo,

Perhaps a threat as a leader in form,

Was disappeared and never heard of again

Further ripping apart a family torn.

You think that was a fairy tale?

A story of the past?

Don’t think it happens today?

Don’t think injustices like that last?

Think again, my friend, it has already begun-

A shadow deepening and continually cast.

Just two months ago, houses were burned to the ground

By workers of a Canadian nickel company near.

Forcing the indigenous Mayan out of their homes-

The company wants “their” land cleared.

Is it even theirs? Do they have necessary paperwork?

Think, my friend, it is beginning again not ten years from now: this year.