SENTADO SOBRE LOS MUERTOS

It just isn’t the same writing these blogs in Caracas without Raven. We are working out a slightly more high-tech method than the tradtional 2 cans and a string approach to communication. We are now exchanging e-mails.

From me to Raven:

Hey, guy, after a 4 hour search to obtain bolivares for mexican pesos yesterday that left me frazzled and with an episode of diarrhea due to my visit to an upscale east-side Italian bistro (fast service, tortellinis seemed fresh, almost good italian bread with olive oil and something else to dip it in; it may have been the “something else” that hit my stomach like a cluster bomb falling on a house in Bagdad?) I managed to keep my intestines under control to watch a strong documentary film by 2 Irish women about the coup that took place here a year ago, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. My friend Félix and I watched maybe 15 minutes in the English version and then started again with the version in Spanish. I have mixed feelings about the massive difference in quality of the print cut in English and the washed out version in Spanish—but maybe it’s more important for English speakers to understand what happened here?

Raven apparently took a few minutes to down his coffee and respond from Puerto Angel:

Hey you, too. Maybe the Spanish version is meant to be a bus picture!

*Note: Some of the films that turn up on the first class buses are normal videos of films—mostly from Hollywood—but there are some nearly inexplicable choices—the occasional good documentary about divers in Cabo Verde, but just as likely a low-budget biker video with hilarious subtitling of the biker jargon. This documentary could serve as a consciousness raising vehicle on the buses....

Raven continues:

Check out Eduardo Galeano´s piece, “la náusea” in LA JORNADA:

“The country in the world which fabricates more weapons and more lies sneers at the sufferings of others. ‘We don’t count the dead’, answered General Franks when someone asked him about collateral damage—what they call those civilians blown to bits.”

Me to Raven:

Rave, right. Remember the blog we did about the Bly poem, “Counting Small.Boned Bodies”? For the Poets Against the War event at the university, where one of my students lifted the roof of the auditorium reading Miguel Hernández’ elegy from the Spanish Civil War, “Sentado sobre los muertos” (Sitting on the Dead)....I have the Galeano piece on the screen now. Nice translating. What about this irony-laden comment?:

”Babylon, the whore of the Old Testament, deserves this punishment. For its many sins and its plentiful petroleum.”

And then, at the end:

“The country dedicated to bombing the other countries, that for years and years has been inflicting an uncontrolable number of 9/11s, has declared an infinite third world war.

Raven to me:

Of course it is. And get this, from another piece:

“Miami, 11 de abril. The governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, brother of president George W. Bush, proclaimed on Friday that after the “success” of the war in Iraq, the United States ought to turn its sights to the “neighborhood” and pressure the international community so that the cuban regime doesn’t continue.”

What is this—a neighborhood cleanup campaign?

Me to Raven:

That’s all we need, Rave—the whore of the Miami anticastristas who rigged the election in Florida to put the Village Idiot in the White House dedicating himself to being the soccer mom of the hemisphere. This scenario of putting Cuba and then Venezuela in the crosshairs was mentioned by Chávez last night after we watched the film. What he didn’t do was quote himself—about a year ago he said “We will continue for many years in the crosshairs of the snipers....”

Raven to me:

I read that he cut an agreement yesterday with the “opposition” to hold the referendum on his presidency. So I guess Carter will be going back to Caracas?

Me to Raven:

Yeah. At least he is a dove—his flying here with his new Nobel sure beats the hell out of sending a cruise missile through the front door of Miraflores.

Raven to me:

I bet the Pentagon still has those 3,000 toilet seats they didn’t drop on Bagdad....