Soneto de Rosario | Teen Ink

Soneto de Rosario

April 18, 2017
By Joelave BRONZE, Billings, Montana
Joelave BRONZE, Billings, Montana
1 article 2 photos 1 comment

Dream that you can’t breathe in like air

Hollow lungs dying like leaves in autumn

And like La Llorona’s deathly despair

Leaves lay dormant waiting for winter’s sun

Her asphyxia of lamentation

Blinded by darkness trying to find light

Liberate the oppressed of a nation

Dream that we do not die in heart of night

Pero “matamos lo que amamos”

Lost in his nocturne full of solitudes

Sorrow cannot be shamed, hope, a small dose

We give life to what we hate – gratitude

Dream left in retrograde, my death mislead

How can you die if you are already dead?


The author's comments:

Rosario Castellanos Figueroa was a famous poet of Mexico and one of Mexico’s most important voices that spoke up for minorities. She was born in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico on May 25, 1925 and lived on a farm for most of her childhood. She saw a different side of the Chiapan natives and saw how poorly they were treated when colonization started in Mexico. This contributed to the spark of writing. During her adolescent years, the government took her farm and she was forced to move to Mexico City. Her parents both died when she was fifteen and she had to fend for herself after that. She ended up connecting to intellectuals around her and began writing. She became a professor later at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. During her teaching years, she married another professor and had a child, a son, with him. There were multiple bumps in their marriage which led to divorce. Her writing was recognized by Mexico and the government appointed her ambassador to Israel. She died in Tel Aviv due to an electrical accident when she was 49, but it is rumored that she committed suicide. Some of her works include The Book of Lamentations, which describes the culture of the Tzotzil people indigenous to central Chiapas, Ciudad Real, The Woman Who Knows Latin, and Poesía no eres tú. Her writing expressed the voice of others like indigenous dying cultures and women of Mexico.


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