They offer 3 hours of poetry in native languages ​​at the Carlos Montemayor festival

The creative and communication possibilities of universes, as well as the commitment to indigenous communities, were evident in the tenth Carlos Montemayor Las Lenguas de América Poetry Festival, which took place in the Miguel Covarrubias room of the University Cultural Center.

The poetic meeting brought together poets for almost three hours in 10 languages ​​spoken on this continent: seven from America and three from Europe, who settled here centuries ago.

On this occasion it was a posthumous tribute to the ethnologist José del Val (1949-2023) and had water as its axis, as an essential element in national cultures.

Mexican poets Briceida Cuevas (maayat’aan), Nadia López García (tu’un savi), Enriqueta Lunez (bats’i k’op), Natalio Hernández (náhuatl), Juventino Gutiérrez (ayuuk) participated in the bilingual reading of his work. ) and Natalia Toledo (diidxazá). Fredy Chicangana (wiñay mallki) attended from Colombia. The meeting was led by Toledo, accompanied by Mardonio Carballo (Náhuatl).

Before an audience made up mostly of young university students, a sample of languages ​​from the old continent was also offered: Sara Uribe read in Spanish, Louise Warren in French and Mariana Lanelli in Portuguese.

The festival began with the participation of the music band of the University Program for Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, with members of indigenous peoples settled in the country.

Mardonio Carballo defined the evening as a festival of the word, in an environment in which many languages ​​of America have been subjugated and there are those that remain alive from the joy.

Natalio Hernández opened the poetic day by recognizing that it evokes the memory of three great characters who left their legacy to know our origin, that is, our identity as Mexicans: Miguel León Portilla, Carlos Montemayor (creator of this festival) and José del Val , died on August 30 of last year.

He added that in threatening times like the current ones I am convinced that poetry can help us live in peace and harmony with ourselves and with our Mother Earth. He immediately read three poems in Nahuatl and Spanish: one dedicated to the wise León Portilla, another with dreams as a theme and a third about universal song: let love flow in our daily walk.

Juventino Gutiérrez’s intervention was characterized by the intimate family enunciation faced with the terrible, the reminiscence of childhood as a loving moment that disappears and the story of humanized evil beings. He recited: poetry is this powerful noise / perhaps writing is contemplating my dog’s chest.

Intimate, pure and human

The moment was already a celebration in which the voices of the authors opened the door to poetry, with its flow of richness in history, cosmogony and teaching of knowledge learned by generations; intimate, pure and human. A stage in which languages ​​are already allowed to accept the mystery and communicate universes, as in the case of the Brazilian Mariana Lanelli: We will continue the fever of others. From tongue to tongue of fire / We are those who hold hands from time to time. We are the lovers.

Enriqueta Lunez followed with her resonant and imaginative poems and her firm prayers: May the elusive love of youth never chase away the rain! o The dead drink water from the spring of memory. Already the ants, the water, the transcendent were poetically established in a subtle and powerful way. The question was heard: What should we learn from insects now that the world’s languages ​​hang in the balance?

Lunez declaimed convinced and timid at the same time while she assured: No one will recognize your voice in my mouth. I will conquer Spain and demand justice.

After Fredy Chicangana, Nadia López emphasized the challenge that it means for indigenous peoples that many of the most valuable resources are in their territories. “The problem of water,” said the poet, “is something that makes us stop. Health and well-being are linked to words, singing and water: let this be a festival in defense of water.”

Natalia Toledo offered poems that spoke of the aftermath of destruction left by the September 2017 earthquake in Juchitán; one dedicated to his father, the artist and activist Francisco Toledo, and others whose center was the memory of his ancestras: If death dreamed of me, I ask him to dream of youhe referred to his mother.

The affection of his readers was evident: We love you, Nataliathey shouted at him shortly before giving him a standing ovation. The festival closed with the participation of the poet and essayist Sara Uribe and Briceida Cuevas, the first writer to receive the Fine Arts Medal in the discipline of Indigenous Languages.