adjust your night-vision glasses, Dan Polonsky, hoping that the strikers dare to take a step forward,
pretend you’re stupid, Mario Islas, so that your godson Eloíno can run inland, wetback, young, breathless, intending never to return,
raise your arms, Benito Ayala, offer your arms to the river, to the earth, to everything that needs your strength to live, to survive,
toss the papers in the air, José Francisco, poems, notes, diaries, novels, let’s see where the wind takes the sheets of paper, let’s see where they fall, on which side, this one or that one,
to the north of the río grande,
to the south of the río bravo,
toss the papers as if they were feathers, ornaments, tattoos to defend them from the inclemency of the weather, clan markings, stone collars, bone, conch, diadems of the race, waist and leg adornments, feathers that speak, José Francisco,
to the north of the río grande,
to the south of the río bravo,
feathers emblematic of each deed, each battle, each name, each memory, each defeat, each triumph, each color,
to the north of the río grande,
to the south of the río bravo,
let the words fly,
poor Mexico,
poor United States,
so far from God,
so near to each other
A Note on the Author
Carlos Fuentes, Mexico’s leading novelist, was born in 1928. He has taught at many universities in the United States and has written essays and screenplays, political journalism and commentary. He has been his country’s ambassador to France and is the author of more than ten novels, including The Death of Artemio Cruz, The Old Gringo and Diana, The Goddess Who Hunts Alone. In 1987, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the highest honour given to a Spanish-language writer. His most recent book is A New Time for Mexico.