Tengo una hija en la mente
by Melissa Cardoza (C) 2016 Melissa Cardoza
Tengo una hija en la mente
y un duelo que me llena el vientre de nada
Perdí amigas
niños hombres que no conoci
Me quitaron los golpistas la vida que no había venido
y me dieron un tropel de mujeres indignadas
con ellas canto en silencio
conspiro en las miradas
por ellos resisto
al aliento de la palabra envenenada
al abismo de la guerra
que nos llama
I have a daughter on my mind
and a pain that fills my womb with emptiness
I lost women friends
men-children that I never got to know
The coup-sters took from me the life that hadn’t come yet
and gave me a multitude of women, indignant
with those women I sing in silence
I conspire in our glances
for and by them I resist
against the breath of the poisoned word
against the abyss of war
that calls to us
Melissa Cardoza is a Honduran lesbian, feminist and activist in the ongoing resistance against the US backed coup against then Pres. Zelaya in 2009. She is the author of “13 Colores de la Resistencia Hondureña/13 Colors of the Honduran Resistance,” from El BeiSMan Press, 2016, ISBN-13 978-1539792055, edited by Vilma Hinkelammert and dedicated to the martyred environmentalist and resister Berta Caceres Flores, from which the original Spanish poem is taken (new English translation for Change Links). Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, calls the bilingual book “a must read for anyone who wants to learn about the many contours of the Honduran feminists fighting for self-determination and dignity. Cardoza is brilliant in storytelling, and ensures that feminisms are three dimensional and span multiple experiences – trans, Black, elderly, and more.”
