Prose of Chenalhó
by José Emilio Pacheco

In 1982, at the beginning
of everything we now see unfolding in Chiapas,
Algeria and Rwanda,
the wealth of Forbes' 400
amounted to only $92 billion.
By 1996 they had amassed $477 billion.
Another year of globalization increased their fortunes.
In 1998 the richest people in the world
taken together possess $624 billion.
If someone mentions to them
the village of Acteal in Chenalhó, Chiapas,
45 defenseless dead, finished off
with machetes and expanding hollowpoint bullets
the gentlemen of Forbes would say:
"We are fed up with catastrophic news.
Enough talk about victims.
There is no point in mentioning disasters.
We detest the complaints and lamentations.
We don't want to hear about the 7,000 displaced
(Indians)
in Poloh and in X'oyer
who protect themselves against the murderous groups."
Acteal is nothing
compared with what may come
if immediate action is not taken.
One need only read Andre Gluckman
("The Third Death of God"
in last Wednesday's Spanish daily "El Pais")
about what happened in Bainen,
eight kilometers from Algiers,
on Christmas eve,
two days after the Chiapas massacre:
Hava, 3 years old,
Yahia, 8
and Selma, 11,
were disemboweled.
Their murderers hung their entrails
like garlands on the tree branches.
On top of the decapitated body of their father,
a doll's head.
The mother, the grandmother, the aunt, the uncles ...
the whole family was cut to pieces.
And a nine year old boy
nailed by the arms, crucified.
There are no words, says Gluckman -- and it makes one
shudder
to think again of Acteal --
for such indescribable cruelty,
to speak the unspeakable,
to narrate the unimaginable.
If one were to talk about these things, for instance,
with Phil Knight (number 17 in Forbes' list),
owner of Nike and Air Jordan,
companies that enslave little girls in Asian sweat shops,
he will say: "This isn't an issue that should
even be on the political agenda today."
How far?
How long?
 
-- January 11, 1998
(translation by Monique J. Lemaitre and Duane Ediger),
1998 Rights Reserved,
Communicacion e Informacion S.A.de C.V.
 
José Emilio Pacheco is one of Mexico's prominent poets.
He has also written novels, essays and short stories.
He is a member of the Colegio Nacional.