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| Castillo, burned alive, aged 33, by CIA-backed Guatemalan regime. |
de Vámonos patria a caminar, yo te acompaño
(1965)
Un día,
los intelectuales
apolíticos
de mi país
serán interrogados
por el hombre
sencillo
de nuestro pueblo.
Se les preguntará
sobre lo que hicieron
cuando
la patria se apagaba
lentamente,
como una hoguera dulce,
pequeña y sola.
No serán interrogados
sobre sus trajes,
ni sobre sus largas
siestas
después de la merienda,
tampoco sobre sus estériles
combates con la nada,
ni sobre su ontológica
manera
de llegar a las monedas.
No se les interrogará
sobre la mitología griega,
ni sobre el asco
que sintieron de sí,
cuando alguien, en su fondo,
se disponía a morir cobardemente.
Nada se les preguntará
sobre sus justificaciones
absurdas,
crecidas a la sombra
de una mentira rotunda.
Ese día vendrán
los hombres sencillos.
Los que nunca cupieron
en los libros y versos
de los intelectuales apolíticos,
pero que llegaban todos los días
a dejarles la leche y el pan,
los huevos y las tortillas,
los que les cosían la ropa,
los que le manejaban los carros,
les cuidaban sus perros y jardines,
y trabajaban para ellos,
y preguntarán,
«¿Qué hicisteis cuando los pobres
sufrían, y se quemaba en ellos,
gravemente, la ternura y la vida?»
Intelectuales apolíticos
de mi dulce país,
no podréis responder nada.
Os devorará un buitre de silencio
las entrañas.
Os roerá el alma
vuestra propia miseria.
Y callaréis,
avergonzados de vosotros.
Otto René Castillo
Intleachtaigh Neamhpholaitiúla
Lá éigin amach anseo
ceisteoidh an dream is saonta
den phobal seo againne
intleachtaigh neamhpholaitiúla
na tíre seo.
Fiafrófar díobh
cad a dheineadar
agus an náisiún ag éag
go mall,
mar thine bheag
léi féin.
Ní cheisteofar iad faoina bhfeisteas,
an siesta fada is nós leo a ghlacadh
tar éis lóin,
ní bheidh spéis ag éinne
faoina ndíospóireachtaí leamha
i dtaobh ‘choincheap an neamhní’
ná sa chur amach atá acu
ar chúrsaí airgeadais.
Ní cheisteofar iad
faoi mhiotaseolaíocht na Gréige,
ná faoin bhféinfhuath a bhraitheann siad
nuair a chailltear duine iontu
de dheasca na meatachta.
Ní cheisteofar iad faoin gcosaint áiféiseach
a dhéanann siad ar seo is ar siúd,
faoi scáth
na bréige.
Tiocfaidh na daoine saonta
ar an lá sin.
Iad siúd nach raibh áit ar bith acu
i leabhair agus i ndánta
na n-intleachtach neamhpholaitiúil,
ach a sheachaid arán agus bainne
go laethúil chucu
na tortilla agus na huibheacha,
iad siúd a thiomáin a gcuid carranna,
a thug aire dá gcuid madraí agus dá gcuid gairdíní
agus a shaothraigh dóibh go dícheallach,
agus fiafróidh siad díobh:
‘Cad a dhein sibh nuair a d’fhulaing
na boicht, nuair a d’éag lasair thláith
na beatha iontu?’
A intleachtacha neamhpholaitiúla
mo thírese,
ní bheidh freagra ar bith agaibh.
Íosfaidh bultúr an tosta
bhur n-ionathar.
Beidh bhur n-ainnise féin
ag piocadh asaibh.
Balbh a bheidh sibh, náirithe.
--Otto Rene Castillo
Apolitical Intellectuals
One day
the apolitical
intellectuals
of my country
will be interrogated
by the simplest
of our people.
They will be asked
what they did
when their nation died out
slowly,
like a sweet fire
small and alone.
No one will ask them
about their dress,
their long siestas
after lunch,
no one will want to know
about their sterile combats
with "the idea
of the nothing"
no one will care about
their higher financial learning.
They won't be questioned
on Greek mythology,
or regarding their self-disgust
when someone within them
begins to die
the coward's death.
They'll be asked nothing
about their absurd
justifications,
born in the shadow
of the total lie.
On that day
the simple men will come.
Those who had no place
in the books and poems
of the apolitical intellectuals,
but daily delivered
their bread and milk,
their tortillas and eggs,
those who drove their cars,
who cared for their dogs and gardens
and worked for them,
and they'll ask:
"What did you do when the poor
suffered, when tenderness
and life
burned out of them?"
Apolitical intellectuals
of my sweet country,
you will not be able to answer.
A vulture of silence
will eat your gut.
Your own misery
will pick at your soul.
And you will be mute in your shame.
--Otto Rene Castillo
To our friends,
Three days ago, Columbia Business School professor Shai Davidai tweeted that Columbia student and lead encampment negotiator Mahmoud Khalil was a foreign national, and suggested that Khalil’s Barnard Library sit-in was a “deportable offense.” Canary Mission followed suit only a few hours later.
Columbia University’s faculty and administration have failed to protect Arab students protesting the Zionist genocide in Gaza for almost two years. Their silence and capitulation to the state has set a terrifying precedent. Khalil now sits in ICE detention.
On Saturday, at around 8:30 PM, two plainclothes Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents followed Mahmoud Khalil and his wife into their New York City apartment building. The officers then detained Khalil without reason. “Agents told him his student visa was revoked. But he had a green card. Agents then said that was revoked too,” reported Zeteo. His wife, who is eight months pregnant, was threatened with arrest if she obstructed. Since then, The White House has bragged about Khalil’s detention: “The first of many to come.”
Trump and his cronies are watching the reaction to this disgusting escalation against those who protest Israel and the American Empire’s genocidal war on Palestine. The Administration and its Zionist allies hope to pave a road to genocide right through any opposition — not just on campuses.
But the foundations of this road have been supported by America’s feckless academic and intellectual class.
During the height of the spring encampments, supposedly pro-Palestine faculty and public intellectuals spouted feeble statements about liberal humanist values of free speech, education, and civil discourse rather than naming the crux of the issue: a Zionist genocide.
“Well-meaning” liberal academic institutions simultaneously sought to infantilize and contain the student protesters’ boldest demands. Unions and civil society failed to allow divestment conversations to take place, releasing statements promoting the appearance of “both sides.” Academic associations failed to unequivocally oppose scholasticide in Gaza, pontificating about whether or not it is “outside their scope.” All of these failures emboldened Zionists even further, crystallizing what people in the movement have known all along: Academic institutions collaborate with the United States and the police, who serve state interests.
In the aftermath of the student intifada, repression intensified. Recently uncovered documents show that Columbia trustees spent over half a million dollars to bribe Zionist students to push for a mask ban and the further militarization of campus under the guise of a “Student Leadership Engagement Initiative.” Now the full force of U.S. Immigration enforcement, in conjunction with a foreign nation and vicious nonstate actors, has been brought to bear against those who stand against genocide.
But this is not a time to be afraid. This is a time to step up, speak out, to push ourselves to do more — to act together, and to never cower. Refusal to Zionism and genocide must continue. Resistance without qualification is the only way forward. We will not stop.
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Make the university dysfunctional
At 12pm on Tuesday, March 11th, National Students for Justice in Palestine calls on the widest swath of organizations, formations, and individuals to walk out of class, take over central space on campus, and assert our mass power.
Our message to every university in this country is clear: succumbing to federal pressure by repressing your students will not save you. The state views intellectual and academic freedom as an existential threat to the ruling class and their political structure. Columbia University may be the testing ground for these repressive methods, but rest assured, they will be deployed against every college and university if there is no unified resistance from the campus community.
Endorse the full statement here
