Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases / Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle - Softcover

Dalton, C Roque

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1644211769 ISBN 13: 9781644211762

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2023

Synopsis

“His prolific artistic production, cut off at the age of forty, remains a monumental artifact . . . illustrating his profound conviction that the poet can and must, in his life as well as in his work, serve as the finely-honed scalpel of change, both in word and deed.” —Claribel Alegrķa
 
“The most daring and innovative Salvadoran writer and intellectual of the twentieth century.” —Jaime Barba

Poems of revolution by one of Latin America’s most beloved poets

Born in San Salvador in 1935, Roque Dalton dedicated his life to armed struggle while writing fierce, tender poems about his country and its people. In Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases / Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle, Dalton offers a road map for a liberated El Salvador, writing through the lens of five poetic personas, each with their own imagined history and distinct voice. This collection shows a country caught in the crosshairs of American imperialism, where the few rule the many and the many fight to survive—and yet there is love and humor and self-mockery to be found here on every page, in every verse, as well as an abiding faith in humanity. “I believe the world is beautiful,” Dalton writes, “and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.”

About this title

About the Author

ROQUE DALTON was born in El Salvador in 1935. As a student at the University of San Salvador, he helped found the University Literary Circle, traveled to Soviet Russia, and joined the Salvadoran Communist Party. He was arrested in 1959 and 1960 for inciting peasant revolts and sentenced to execution by firing squad, but was saved by a coup d’état that overthrew the dictatorship of José Marķa Lemus. In 1961, Roque left for exile in Mexico, and then for post-revolutionary Cuba, where he received guerrilla training and where the majority of his works were published. In 1965, two months after he returned to his native country, Roque was arrested, tortured, and again sentenced for execution, this time saved by an earthquake that crumbled his cell walls.
A poet who brilliantly fused politics and art, Roque’s literary work permanently changed the direction of Central American poetry. The author of eighteen volumes of poetry and prose—among them Un libro rojo para Lenin (written between 1970 and 1973), Las historias prohibidas del Pulgarcito (1974), and Pobrecita poeta que era yo (1976)—his writing combines fierce satirical irony with a humane and exuberant tenderness. His book Taberna y otros lugares, a reflection on his time spent in Prague as a correspondent for The International Review, won the Casa de las Américas prize in 1969. In 1973, Roque clandestinely returned to El Salvador to join the armed struggle. Two years later, the poet-revolutionary was falsely accused of being a CIA agent and assassinated by members of his own faction, the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, during an internal struggle within the organization.
 
JACK HIRSCHMAN (1933–2021) was a poet, translator, and Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Among his recent collections of poetry is The Arcanes #2 (2019).
 
BARBARA PASCHKE is a translator and member of the Center for the Art of Translation, the Roque Dalton Cultural Brigade, and the Revolutionary Poets Brigade. Her publications include Riverbed of Memory (City Lights Books, 2001), Volcįn (City Lights Books, 2001), and New World, New Words (Two Lines Press, 2007).
 
CHRISTOPHER SOTO is a Salvadoran poet. His debut poetry collection, Diaries of a Terrorist (Copper Canyon, 2022), was honored with them’s Now Award in Literature for representing the cutting edge of queer culture.

TATIANA MARROQUĶN is a Salvadoran feminist economist and critic of capitalism. She is a former analyst for the country’s national assembly.
 
JAIME BARBA is a Salvadoran writer and social researcher, based in San Salvador, where he is director-editor of Istmo Editores, a book publisher.
 
MARGARET RANDALL is a poet, scholar, social activist, and recipient of the Poet of Two Hemispheres award from Poesķa en Paralelo Cero, among other recognitions.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Roque Dalton: 50 ańos después

Roque Dalton es indiscutiblemente el poeta de mayor influencia en la historia salvadoreńa y una de las voces mįs importantes de la literatura latinoamericana.
Casi medio siglo ha transcurrido desde la muerte de Roque Dalton en 1975.

En 1973, Roque Dalton dejó Cuba, donde se habķa exiliado. A su regreso a El Salvador de manera clandestina, se unió a la lucha armada de la clase trabajadora.
Por esos mismos ańos apareció una publicación que llevaba por tķtulo “Por La Causa Proletaria”, fundada por revolucionarios en El Salvador.
En 1977, dicha publicación imprimió de forma póstuma Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases [bajo el tķtulo Poemas clandestinos], en colaboración con el grupo guerrillero Resistencia Nacional.
En Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases abundan poemas en los que encarnan las voces de cinco personajes imaginados, y pueden ser leķdos como propaganda polķtica. Un aspecto admirable de este libro es la forma en que es capaz de establecer vķnculos poéticos entre la gente comśn y la inminente guerra civil salvadoreńa.

En su poema “Arte poética 1974,” Dalton escribió: “Poesķa / Perdóname por haberte ayudado a comprender / que no estįs hecha sólo de palabras”.
Dalton era dueńo de un humor, una osadķa y de una verdad implacable. No pocas veces maldecķa a quienes ocupaban puestos en el poder, incluidos burócratas, pacifistas y hasta a la iglesia.
En él habitaba una justa indignación; formaba parte de movimientos literarios y polķticos, tal como dan cuenta tantas obras suyas, por ejemplo, “Las rimas en la historia nacional”, donde escribe a propósito del oficio de poeta en El Salvador, “Rimas salvadoreńas después de 1972: // El que fue a Sevilla perdió su silla / guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla / guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla”.

Desde aquellos dķas de militancia polķtica en la vida de Roque Dalton, ha aparecido una nueva generación de escritores y activistas nacidos en El Salvador y en la diįspora. A nosotros no nos tocó ver ni escuchar la guerra, pero no hay un solo dķa que pase sin que familiares y amigos la mencionen: aquķ estaba el puente que reventaron para interrumpir el comercio y presionar al gobierno a las negociaciones; mįs allį, hay una exhibición de arte en la que se muestran videos de cumbia junto con videos de guerra, en el barrio donde ahora vivimos.
Con frecuencia existe en El Salvador el deseo de hablar de algo mįs aparte de la guerra, sin embargo, nuestra historia estį atada, irreversiblemente, con el presente.
Desde la lucha guerrillera en la guerra civil salvadoreńa, hasta la esperanza que trajeron consigo los acuerdos de paz, y la corrupción en los posteriores gobiernos de derecha e izquierda, la vida y obra de Roque han acompańado a muchas generaciones.
Sus poemas han sido presencia constante en luchas anticapitalistas y antifascistas a lo largo de los ańos, no solo en El Salvador sino a nivel internacional.

En 2023, muchos de aquellos miedos autoritarios que los salvadoreńos habķan dejado atrįs parecen haber renacido. En varios rincones del mundo, ideas autoritarias como solución a los problemas de la clase trabajadora, estįn de vuelta.
Hablar del ethos revolucionario de Dalton en proximidad con cualquier lķder autoritario parece peligroso. Esto se debe a que Dalton es un poeta que no vivió la revolución como teorķa sino en la violencia de la praxis, como en el poema “Viejos comunistas y guerrilleros”, donde escribió: “Pero la revolución en todas partes necesita personas / que no sólo estén dispuestas a morir / sino también dispuestas a matar por ella”.

Hoy, no solo los autoritarismos han renacido, de igual manera las voces revolucionarias contenidas en este libro renacen una vez mįs.
En ańos recientes, el poema de Dalton, “Consejo que ya no es necesario en ninguna parte del mundo pero que en El Salvador . . .” ha sido recitado por activistas en Latinoamérica como una advertencia, una seńal, una denuncia. El poema dice: “No olvides nunca / que los menos fascistas / de entre los fascistas / también son / fascistas”.
Muchos de los problemas sobre los que Dalton escribió continśan siendo debatidos.

Hoy en dķa, los grupos feministas en El Salvador se pronuncian sobre la falta de remuneración en las tareas domésticas a las que han sido relegadas las mujeres.
Esta conversación fue seńalada décadas atrįs en un poema de Dalton, “Sobre la plusvalķa o el patrón le roba a dos en cada obrero”, donde escribió, “Los oficios domésticos de la mujer / le crean al hombre el tiempo / para el trabajo socialmente necesario”.
La falta de remuneración para las tareas domésticas es una realidad para las mujeres salvadoreńas.
En El Salvador, el salario mķnimo es de aproximadamente $350 mensuales, dependiendo del tipo de trabajo y de si se tiene la fortuna de contar con un patrón dispuesto a respetar ese salario.
Las personas que deciden irse del paķs y emigrar a los Estados Unidos se endeudan con los coyotes que las acompańan en el viaje. Las dinįmicas sociales y económicas de los personajes que Roque representó en sus Historias y poemas siguen siendo la realidad para la mayorķa de salvadoreńas.
Pero el perfil de la lucha ha cambiado.

Roque Dalton entendió la lucha por la liberación como algo intergeneracional y con frecuencia tomó a revolucionarios indķgenas, como Anastasio Aquino, como fuente de inspiración para sus acciones.
En su poema “Ultraizquierdistas”, escribe, “Los pipiles . . . no quisieron agachar la cabeza frente a la Corona de Espańa / y se alzaron en la sierra / con las armas en la mano / contra el conquistador”. Buscaba aquellas voces marginalizadas en El Salvador para estimular sus luchas de liberación.
Su lucha sin tregua era para construir un futuro mejor.
Su poema “En el futuro” leemos, “Cuando nuestra sociedad sea / bįsicamente justa / o sea / socialista / en las conversaciones de las cervecerķas / a la hora de las confesiones ķntimas; / mįs de alguno dirį con la mirada baja / ‘yo tuve propiedad privada sobre los medios de producción’”.
El anhelo por poner fin a la propiedad privada y encaminarse hacia un estado socialista puede advertirse también en otro poema lleno de esperanza por el futuro, “Podrķa ser”, en el que leemos, “Para los burgueses / la patria las leyes el honor y Dios / no tienen sentido sin / la propiedad privada y ‘la libre empresa’. // Para los proletarios / la muerte de la propiedad privada / y de la ‘libre empresa’ / darķa sentido a la Patria las leyes el honor / y tal vez hasta a Dios”.

En Historias y poemas de una lucha de clases, hay que tener presente siempre la ternura del poeta.
Vale la pena considerar por ejemplo, “Tercer poema de amor” en su totalidad: “A quienes digan que nuestro amor es extraordinario / porque ha nacido de circunstancias extraordinarias / diles que precisamente luchamos / para que un amor como el nuestro / (amor entre compańeros de combate) / llegue a ser en El Salvador / el amor mįs comśn y corriente, / casi el śnico”.
Su ternura se vuelve a repetir en uno de sus mįs célebres poemas, “Como tś”, en el que el poeta escribió, “Yo, como tś, / amo el amor, la vida, el dulce encanto / de las cosas, el paisaje / celeste de los dķas de enero”.
Para Dalton, el amor representaba algo extraordinario que se entretejķa con su visión llena de esperanza por el mundo. La esperanza es vital para que poetas y revolucionarios sigan adelante. En “El Salvador serį”, Dalton se entrelaza con los sueńos de un futuro mejor y escribe, “El problema es que hoy El Salvador / tiene como mil puyas y cien mil desniveles / quinimil callos y algunas postemillas / cįnceres cįscaras caspas shuquedades / llagas fracturas tembladeras tufos”, antes de proclamar que el paķs un dķa estarį mejor.
Hoy, depende de la presente generación proteger algunos de los avances por los que él y muchos otros dieron su vida.
Es solo gracias a poetas y activistas como Roque Dalton que futuros mejores son posibles.

tatiana marroquķn
economista y feminista
San Salvador, El Salvador
enero 2023

christopher soto
poeta y activista por la abolición de las prisiones
Los Įngeles, California
enero 2023

Roque Dalton: 50 Years Later

Roque Dalton is inarguably the most influential poet in Salvadoran history, and one of the most influential voices in literature from Latin America.
It has been almost half a century since Roque Dalton’s death in 1975.

In 1973, Roque Dalton left Cuba, where he lived in exile. He returned clandestinely to El Salvador where he was part of an armed struggle for the working class.
Around that time, a publication called “Por La Causa Proletaria” had just been founded by revolutionaries in El Salvador.
In 1977, this publication posthumously printed Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle [under the title Poemas clandestinos] in collaboration with the guerrilla faction Resistencia Nacional. Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle is filled with embodiment poems that reflect the voices of five different imagined characters and it can be read as political propaganda. One fascinating thing about this book is how it builds a poetic connection between everyday people and the looming Salvadoran Civil War.

In his poem “Poetic Art 1974,” Dalton writes, “Poetry / Forgive me for having helped you understand / you’re not made of words alone.”
Dalton was a poet of humor and crass and unrepentant truth. He would often publicly curse by name those in positions of power—bureaucrats, pacificists, and even the church.
He was filled with righteous anger and was embedded in both literary and political movements, as noted in so many of his works, including “Rhymes on National History,” where he notes, writing of the poetic craft in El Salvador, “Salvadoran rhymes after 1972: // He lost his seat on the way to Sevilla / guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla / guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla, guerrilla.”

Since the period of militant activism that filled Roque Dalton’s years, there has been a whole generation of new writers and activists born in El Salvador and in the diaspora. We have never heard or seen the war, but our days are filled with mention of it by family members and friends—here was the bridge that was blown up in order to disrupt the flow of commerce and bend the government into negotiations; here is an art exhibit depicting cumbia music videos mixed with war videos in the neighborhood where we live now.
There is often a desire in El Salvador to talk about more than the war, but our history is so impossibly tied to the present.
From the guerrilla struggle in the Salvadoran Civil War, to the hope brought to the country by the signing of the peace accords, to the corruption from both right and left-wing governments that followed—Roque’s life and work has accompanied many people over generations.
His poems have remained a constant in anti-capitalist and antifascist struggles over the years, not only in El Salvador but internationally.

In 2023, many of the authoritarian fears that Salvadorans had left behind seem to have been reborn. In various parts of the world, authoritarian ideas, as a way out of working-class problems, are making a comeback.
To speak of Dalton’s revolutionary ethos in proximity to any authoritarian leader feels dangerous. This is because Dalton is a poet who did not live the revolution in theory but in violent praxis, as noted in the poem “Old Communists and Guerillas,” where he writes, “But everywhere the revolution needs people / not only willing to die / but also willing to kill for it.”

In the present day, not only has authoritarianism been revived, but the revolutionary voices in this book are being revived as well.
In recent years, Dalton’s poem “Advice That Is No Longer Necessary Anywhere in the World but Here in El Salvador . . .” has been recited among activists in Latin America as a warning, as a signal, and as a condemnation. This poem reads, “Don’t ever forget / that the least fascist / among fascists / also are / fascists.”
So many of the issues that Dalton wrote about are still being struggled with.

In present-day El Salvador, feminists speak about the lack of pay that surrounds the domesticated chores relegated to them.
This conversation was noted decades earlier in the Dalton poem “On the Profit Margin or the Boss Robs Every Worker Twice Over,” where he writes, “The woman’s domestic functions / create time for the man / for socially necessary work.”
Lack of pay for domestic work is a reality for women in El Salvador.
The minimum wage for working people is approximately $350 a month in El Salvador, depending on your work sector and if you are lucky enough to find employers that honor this wage.
People who want to leave the country and migrate to the United States incur debt to coyotes who travel with them.
The social and economic dynamics of the characters that Roque depicted in Stories and Poems are still the reality for a majority of Salvadorans today.
Though the shape of the struggle has shifted.

Roque Dalton understood struggles for liberation to be intergenerational and he often looked at Indigenous revolutionaries like Anastasio Aquino for inspiration in his actions.
In the poem “Ultraleftists,” he writes, “The Pipiles / . . . didn’t want to bow down before the Crown of Spain / and rose up in the mountains / with weapons in their hands / against the conquistador.”
He was looking at marginalized voices in El Salvador and uplifting their struggles for liberation. He was fighting endlessly to build a better future.
His poem “In the Future” reads, “When our society is / basically just / that is / socialist / in the conversations in saloons / at the moment of intimate confession / more than a few will say with down-cast eyes, / ‘I held private property based on the means of production.’”
A desire to end private property and move toward a socialist state can also be noted in another poem of hopeful futurism called “It Could Be,” which reads, “For the bourgeoisie / country, laws, honor and God / have no meaning without / private property and ‘free enterprise.’ // For the proletarians / the death of private property / and ‘free enterprise’ / would give meaning to country, laws, honor / and perhaps even to God.”

In Stories and Poems of a Class Struggle, it is worth noting the tenderness of this poet.
It is worth saying “Third Poem of Love” in its entirety, “Whoever tells you our love is extraordinary / because it was born of extraordinary circumstances / tell them we’re struggling precisely / so that a love like ours / (a love among comrades in combat) / becomes / the most ordinary and common / almost the only / love in El Salvador.”
This tenderness is also echoed in one of his most widely circulated poems, “Like You,” where the poet writes: “Like you I / love love, life, the sweet smell / of things, the sky-blue / landscape of January days.” For Dalton, love was extraordinary and also intertwined with his hopeful worldview. Hope is necessary for poets and revolutionaries to continue. In “El Salvador Will Be,” Dalton is tied to dreams for a better future and he writes, “The problem is that today El Salvador / has a thousand rough edges and a hundred thousand pitfalls / about five hundred thousand calluses and some blisters / cancers rashes dandruff filthiness / ulcers fractures fevers bad odors,” before stating that the country one day can do better. Now, it is up to this next generation to protect some of the advances that he and so many people died for. It is only because of poets and activists like Roque Dalton that better futures become possible.

—tatiana marroquķn
Economist and Feminist
San Salvador, El Salvador January 2023

—christopher soto
Poet and Prison Abolitionist
Los Angeles, California January 2023

Edition details

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1644211769
• ISBN 13: 9781644211762
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248