A Shameful Blunder
As the translator of Roque Dalton’s CLANDESTINE POEMS, one of the truly great books of revolutionary poetry published in the Americas in a generation (CurbstonePress), I must strongly protest the inclusion of the article by Joaquin Villalobos, the man who brutally killed Dalton, in the pages of The Nation, an ostensibly progressive magazine.
Villalobos, so far as El Salvador and the yearnings of the peoples of all central and south American countries, has been the peoples’ nada. By contrast, the eminence and importance of Dalton have grown and deepened through the years in the place from which they wre born and which he served comsistently and passionately to the last of his assassinated breaths—the heart of the people of the world beating for revolutionary change.
The Nation should hang its head in shame for such a blunder. Despite widespread attempts to alzheimerize revolution and its authentic voices, the people remember and always will defy the lies of the pimps of capitalism with the truths of both the past and the future.
Long Live Roque Dalton!
Adamantly,
JACK HIRSCHMAN
Poet Laureate of the City of San Francisco