El Ciclo (The Cycle)
Series: Llegando de los Pueblos (Arriving from the Villages)
From: Megan Martin
Length: 00:09:29
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Piece Description
A meditation on the cycle of land, and its reflection in the inheritance passed down from father to son. Our hero is Don Ramón González, a farmer from San Andrés Chicahuaxtla. Don Ramon’s hands move through his daily labor, beginning as the sun rises; he winds his way through the rows of earth, each season bringing a new job: preparing the soil, burning the land, planting seed, and eventually shucking the corn from its husk for his family’s consumption. These are the hands that have fed his family for years, have taught his children to cultivate the land, and will eventually pass the labor onto them. Listen to the story in his own words, and in the words of poet Juan Gregorio Regino, read by Luis Manuel Amador.
Broadcast History
Current and ongoing broadcast on XETLA, La Voz de la Mixteca, and indigenous station run by the Comisión para el Desarollo de los Pueblos Indígenas (CDI), in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca.
Transcript
READER: VERSES DRAWN FROM WORDS OF THE TRUE PEOPLE, POEM #7, JUAN GREGORIO REGINO.
THE TIME HAS COME.
THE DAY HAS COME.
THUS THE DAY IS BORN.
THUS THE LIGHT IS BORN.
Ambient sound from a farm in Chicahuaxtla fades up behind a monologue heard in the Triqui language.
Don Ramón: (Translating his own monologue from Triqui). Ah. Well, my name is Rmaón González Pérez. Born and raised here in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla. I’m 70 years old, all of which I’ve spent here in my native land.
I grow corn. I harvest what little I can. Nothing more—that’s my job. I really like being a farmer because, well, when you’ve got a government job, or a factory job, or whatever, well, it’s not the same as being a farmer. Because, well, a farmer harvests something. He stores his corn. And then he has it to eat. He doesn’t have to move along, anxious from having to go from one place to another looking for...
Read the full transcript
Additional Credits
This piece was produced in fulfillment of the Fulbright-García Robles fellowship, administered by COMEXUS.
