“Like stones / Ken tetsitsintin / Como las piedras”
Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Sandra Vega: What drew me to this poem immediately was the Náhuatl; while I don’t speak the tongue, it was spoken by my great grandmother during her final days as she reverted to her native language. It was beautifully tragic as her loved ones around her spoke little to none. Poet Martín Tonalmeyotl: The poem is directed to the Nahua town of Atzacoaloya, Guerrero where before, its streets were filled with all kinds of people, mainly children who played with spinning tops, marbles, a game called rabbits and coyotes (the coyotes catching the rabbits) and playing with a ball until late at night, but the narco-violence came to this Nahua community and the streets became desolate.
Martín Tonalmeyotl was born in Atzacoaloya, Chilapa, Guerrero in 1983 and is a farmer, poet, translator, broadcaster. Sandra Vega’s art explores the politics of identity and biculturalism, which she defines as a state of double consciousness and an interpretation of otherness.