FOR THOSE ARMED (WITH THE MOTHER TONGUE)
(NO) ES VERDAD QUE (YO) ESCRIBO.
It is true that there is no neutrality in writing-we know-but we also know that, in order not to "bite the tongue" we must consider the position from which we enunciate and where we are going.
I write out of necessity and demand, for there is a desire that operates somewhere we call "within". There is certainly a desire to become public in the text.
To become public implies "establishing" in the other a "false demand": as if the other demanded this writing, and, as if, through it one gave something. This economy (between the One and the Other), is a false exchange, and occurs in a symbolic space that is "pure contradiction". It is always "received" with what is read and "given" with what is written "more, or less", but never the just, the equitable... the Real. This writing is a "false coin", its circulation; a labyrinth of meanings without exit, and these texts, an institutional scaffold: a prosthesis of what WE LACK IN THE REAL and we intend to enunciate in the symbolic. But behind these texts come murmurs that are radical in their causes... for those who listen or read attentively, these murmurs will gain their radicality and free themselves from their silence.
We are destructive organisms, and this "scriptural technology" is certainly a biological weapon. You should know that, like you, we too are armed "to the teeth". We have the "common" right to take the voice that we lack; the words that we are owed, that belong to us by right, and to summon in them what belongs to us by right: what we should do well for ourselves, for others; for all.
At the same time we have the responsibility to see that "something" that does not stop "not enunciating" in what is said or related of the experience: that which is in the deafening silence of the words I write for you; which we write together for those who are also -like us- armed.
1 – BREAK THE SILENCE
There is no other way to confront our silence than with a radical “aesthetics of destruction”—let’s say—making the silence speak through its breaking, or to put it another way: break it, or make it break. In this “breaking,” lies the truth of the signifier, or the multiple truths of the signifiers that have been silent until now, but, moreover, there would also be the image of that silence.
This “breaking the silence” would ultimately involve breaking the historical spaces of enunciative impossibility: taking and managing spaces of our own for our voice.
2 – THE IMAGE IS MISSING
Here in Tierra Negra and Tierra Colorada, our image is missing; there are few “documents” and many historical blasphemies that come from the outside, with an imposing voice that breaks us even to the dead. It is true—indeed—that there are few records, and very few historical “archives”: it is our fault and also the fault of the Other that our word exists not at all.
The terrible historical science turned to ashes before it could burn, before it even began to ignite. It is up to us to “create” the image (it is up to us to make it burn), because in its absent darkness it remains silent, and with it, our historical signifiers remain silent.
This LACK, or—better yet—“this fault,” reveals the visual nature of silence; the sonic nature of visuality, but it also shows the sonic and visual silence in which we have remained... In which we still find ourselves.
Silence has something of an image, and the image has something of the public; the image, as a public presence, also has something of truth.
"We no longer have them... My mom had two, from her father and grandfather. They had several in the palm hut, those photos you're looking for, but our house burned down. Everything was lost there... That's why my mom wanted a photo of her husband as a keepsake."
Nelly Alatriste Flores.
"Before coming here, the elders lived in the hills, and later, by agreement, they came here. Much later, they tried to recover their land, but no one wanted to return it to them. A widower was the only one who was willing to sell. So, this land was bought, and that’s how a society was formed. (…) But before, there were no photographs... Or we didn’t know them... Much later, photographers started coming all the way to the hill where we were; there was a man from San Juan who spoke Nahuatl, and he also spoke Ngiba—he didn’t get the tone right, but he spoke it—when we could pay for the photographs, we paid, and when we couldn’t, we traded with corn or beans. He took the photos, I remember."
Juan Ascención Colmena
3 – SEE THE SILENCE / TRUTH THE SILENCE
Our words dissolved in orchards of trees, in crops, and in ravaged meadows: in the forest and in the rivers, in the trash heaps and the barracks; in the desolate streets; in a midnight job for the deep drainage of a city that was not ours.
We were cowards, and we hid from danger—it’s true—that we had little time left, few lands, and few attempts... But it’s also true—that today—we have little darkness left to hide in.
We followed the school’s advice and learned to veil the color of our language: we preferred to cover up the “miseries” so that our life would not stop... Thus, our echoes were extinguished. Now, our maternal voice lies in the midst of nothingness; but we know that the voice is a sacred place, words sprout: they fracture the skin and bone, and with the impulse they have held back, it is impossible to stop them.
"Some men arrived at this place who claimed to belong to the people of Axayácatl, who was the commander of the forces of Moctezuma Ilhuicamina. (...) Their orders were that all the towns, regardless of the names they had and the languages they spoke, from that day on, would have to be known by names composed of words from the Nahuatl language."
Pedro Ochoa
"Prosperity is a proof of divine division, and it begins with the knowledge of the Bible. Human groups that do not know the Scriptures are degraded and must be subject to moral regeneration. Their very state of backwardness is proof that they do not enjoy the favor of God. Individualism and competition are the ideal of moral conduct. Any collective action is morally irresponsible and a product of satanic activity on earth."
Instituto Lingüístico de Verano
"We were forbidden to speak in our language, our parents forbade us: many of us had to go to school. On the advice of the teachers, they told us, 'If you keep speaking that, you won’t learn Spanish, or math, or sums, or anything.' Even our father would beat us if we spoke N'giba. He suffered a lot from discrimination… More than we did. He tells us that when he was a child, they would chase him from the center until they left him at the ravine—'Popoloqueros, Popoloqueros'—they would call him. And just like him, many others. At first, we felt ashamed, but as we grew older, we realized they were wrong… that we were wrong, but it was hard in those times. We understand well… but we don’t speak."
Alfonso Ascención Colmena
4 – THE SILENCE OF THE EARTH
There is a deafening silence at the edge of the earth; it is said that burning flames appear at the centers of the path, and ashes buried in shallow graves like water jugs. Time is a metaphor for the earth: what exists are the hills that break apart, the heavy and light places; the white earth, the black earth, and the red earth.
Grandmother and grandfather come from a high hill, and from a stone corral; from the water of a reed.
Where is the edge of the path located?
How much has the land cost us?
“The people of Tierra Negra come from three places: Meza de Pescado, it’s called Ngu-sen dha nguché; Meza Otate, it’s called Tszé enun dha shá; Meza Izote, it’s called Ckutsé ndhan-tshe —the name means a lot of izote—.
The people of Tierra Colorada come from where Octaviano Bravo has his land; Zacamel —that’s the name—, I don’t know how to say it; they also came from Xocoyo, that’s called Ckutsé ndha ní-ñha. The people from the Barrio de Santa Inés came from Tetele Otate; that’s Da´sha, they came from there. Those who never moved —because they stayed from the beginning— are the ones from Barrio de Jesús. People say that neighborhood was cursed because the population never grows, it’s a very small neighborhood. The people from Barrio de Santiago moved from “tres caminos,” that’s called Ni ndhi-ha´, and the people from Los Reyes came from Xoxotla and Tempesquistle, that’s why that neighborhood speaks Mexican".
Porfirio Arellano Benítez
5 – MOTHER TONGUE
Language is formed and shaped, it also springs from the most original things. It adapts and gathers, or tries to gather, around the object, or the universe of objects it names: language edges —or rather—, circumnavigates the Real. We are not innocent, we know that our mother tongue is a sacred place: it “breaks” words and disconnects them from their usual references.
"We are with your mom and my mom creating words, we already have three; one is for saying 'cell phone,' another is 'television'... we are going to get together to create more. (…) I like it when they ask, 'How are you?' In Ngiba, it’s said: Ngueru jha-se atisia´gin´a. What does your heart say? It’s very beautiful… But they didn’t want to teach us. We understand everything, but we don’t speak; now we want to speak, but we can’t get the tone right. (…) There are things that can’t be said any other way, our language has truth. Every time something is said in N’giba, it holds truth."
Irene Guadalupe Ramón Orozco