Revolutionary
Poet
Salvadoran
Roque Dalton was all three.
Profoundly all three.
Born on May 14, 1935.
He grew up in San Salvador
Studied law at the University of Chile
And later at the University of El Salvador
There he formed a writer’s group
of up-and-coming poets and authors…
He was inspired by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Mexican painter Diego Rivera.
Communism and revolutionary causes.
His poems are pure art
Mixing politics with poetry
Blending verse and prose
Humor and reality
History and current events.
Beautiful lines alongside anger at the suffering plight of humanity
And above all… that of the downtrodden and poor of El Salvador…
Like his poem, COMO TÚ, “like you”:
“I, like you,” he writes
“love love, life, the sweet charm
of things, the celestial landscape
of January days.
My blood also boils,
and I laugh through eyes
that have known the spring of tears.
I believe the world is beautiful,
that poetry is like bread, for everyone.
And that my veins end not in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who fight for life,
love,
things,
the landscape, and bread,
the poetry of everyone.”
His poems and prose have punchlines
innuendo
Heart and depth
“Poetry,” he wrote, “Forgive me for helping you understand
that you are not made only of words.”
His poems have humor, as he displays the tragic hypocrisies of the world
And seems to almost be winking at you.
But they are also profoundly serious.
“In the middle of the sea a whale sighs,” he writes, “and in its sigh it says: love with hunger does not satisfy.”
He writes of the past and the very, very present
Foreign invaders from forgotten times.
And the current ones… bearing gifts, wrapped in red, white and blue
With promises of riches and so-called freedom granted by Washington… and foreign corporations.
And he was clear that, together with a group of other Latin American poets, he was trying to develop a new style of radical poetry, rooted in politics and social struggle.
This is one of the few recordings of Roque Dalton I’ve been able to find.
In it, he says…
“Instead of singing, our poetry poses problems. Presents conflicts. Presents ideas, which are much more effective than hymns at making people conscious of the problems in the fight for the freedom of our peoples.”
But Roque Dalton did not just write words.
He lived them.
He attended the world youth festival in Russia
He traveled, met and spoke out against injustices
He was imprisoned. Escaped. He traveled. He lived in Czechoslovakia.
Exiled in Mexico. Exiled in Cuba.
And trained to fight there.
In the 1970s, El Salvador was ruled by a brutal US-backed dictatorship. Repressive. Violent Hundreds of people disappeared each month.
He joined the ERP, the People’s Revolutionary Army, a guerrilla movement that would fight against the government.
But he and the leadership differed over the direction their movement would take.
He remained outspoken. He said they needed to build their base.
And in an unthinkably treacherous crime…
The leaders of his guerrilla army killed Roque Dalton on May 10, 1975
Just four days before his 40th birthday.
As an excuse, his murderers claimed he was a CIA agent.
And they disappeared his body.
But Roque Dalton continues to inspire even 50 years after his killing.
His poems. His books breath with life as if they were written yesterday.
As if he were still here.
And in a way, he still is… continuing to inspire inside and outside El Salvador.
I once asked Santiago, the head of the Museum of Word and Image in San Salvador and the former director of Radio Venceremos, El Salvador’s guerrilla radio, what his favorite poem was. His answer was this:
Alta hora de la noche (In the Dead of the Night), by Roque Dalton.
I found this version of it online, read by none other than the iconic Argentine writer Julio Cortazar, a close friend of Roque Dalton’s.
When you learn that I have died, do not pronounce my name
because it will hold back my death and rest.
Your voice, which is the sounding of the five senses,
would be the dim beacon sought by my mist.
When you learn that I have died, whisper strange syllables.
Pronounce flower, bee, teardrop, bread, storm.
Do not let your lips find my eleven letters.
I have dreams, I loved, I have earned my silence.
Do not pronounce my name when you learn that I have died
from the dark earth I would come for your voice.
Do not pronounce my name, do not say my name
When you learn that I have died, do not pronounce my name.
Roque Dalton left a wife and three sons, who also joined in the struggle against the bloody, US-backed Salvadoran government of the 1970s and ’80s. And who have continued to demand justice and the truth about their father’s death.
Roque Dalton’s words, actions and memory still inspire…
So many years later.
One last thing to add. Remember this song… Unicorno Azul, Blue Unicorn, by Cuba’s celebrated singer songwriter Silvio Rodriguez. Well, lyrics talk about a lost blue unicorn. Silvio Rodriguez wrote it for Roque Dalton in the years following his death.
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Hi folks, thanks for listening. I’m your host Michael Fox.
I’ll be honest, this episode really touched me. Roque Dalton has long been one of my favorite poets and there are just so many layers here. I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll add some links in the show notes to more of his poetry, Julio Cortazar reading Alta hora de la noche and the clip of him speaking about developing a new radical poetry for Latin America.
I’ll also include links for my stories from my podcast Under the Shadow about El Salvador’s Civil War in the 1980s and the Museum of Word and Image in San Salvador.
This is Episode 30 of Stories of Resistance, a podcast series co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Each week, I bring you stories of resistance and hope like this. Inspiration for dark times. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment or leave a review.
You can also check out exclusive pictures, follow my reporting, and support my work at my patreon, www.patreon.com/mfox.
As always, thanks for listening. See you next time.
This is episode 30 of Stories of Resistance — a podcast co-produced by The Real News and Global Exchange. Independent investigative journalism, supported by Global Exchange’s Human Rights in Action program. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times.
If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review. You can also follow Michael’s reporting and support at patreon.com/mfox.
Written and produced by Michael Fox.
Resources
HABLA ROQUE DALTON SOBRE SU OBRA POÉTICA, UNA JOYA DE VIDEO
Roque Dalton – Dolores de Cabeza
Alta hora de la noche (Roque Dalton) Recitado por Cortázar
Other Roque Dalton poems, read by Julio Cortazar
Under the Shadow:
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.