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    As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía: Poems for the Disappeared/Poemas para los desaparecidos
    As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía: Poems for the Disappeared/Poemas para los desaparecidos
    As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía: Poems for the Disappeared/Poemas para los desaparecidos
    Ebook88 pages33 minutes

    As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía: Poems for the Disappeared/Poemas para los desaparecidos

    By Margaret Randall

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    About this ebook

    These twelve exquisite poems depict, with razor-precise clarity, the realities of the "disappeared" in Latin America and the emotional devastation of the families left behind. As human beings, we can find the strength to bury our dead, grieve for them always, and yet somehow move on. Not so with our disappeared loved ones: every moment is filled with the horror of what they must be suffering in some secret torture cell.We never escape from their screams, and we never stop trying to find them. As Margaret Randall so vividly writes, "We cannot move on, for where would they find us when they stumble home?"
    Estos doce poemas exquisitos representan, con claridad precisa, las realidades de los desaparecidos en América Latina y la devastacin emocional de las familias que se quedan atrs. Como humanos, podemos encontrar la fuerza para enterrar los muertos, llorar a ellos para siempre y de algn modo proseguir. Pero ésta no es la realidad de la situacin de los desaparecidos: cada momento se llena con el horror de lo que sin duda sufren ellos en celdas secretas de tortura. Nunca podemos escapar de sus gritos, pero tampoco podemos parar la bsqueda de ellos. Escribe Margaret Randall, "No podemos seguir adelante; dnde nos encontraran cuando regresen en casa?"
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateMar 1, 2011
    ISBN9781609401597
    As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía: Poems for the Disappeared/Poemas para los desaparecidos
    Author

    Margaret Randall

    Writer and social activist Margaret Randall is the author of more than eighty published books, including To Change the World: My Years in Cuba (2009) and, most recently, As If the Empty Chair / Como si la silla vaca (a bilingual book of poetry) and First Laugh (essays). She lives in Albuquerque.

    Read more from Margaret Randall

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      Book preview

      As If the Empty Chair/Como si la silla vacía - Margaret Randall

      NOTE:

      For the benefit of ebook reading devices, the original facing page design of this book has been altered. The full English text is followed by the full Spanish text. We regret any inconvenience this may cause the reader.

      AS IF THE EMPTY CHAIR

      COMO SI LA SILLA VACÍA

      Poems for the disappeared

      Poemas para los desaparecidos

      title

      As If The Empty Chair / Como si la si/la vacia © 2011

      by Wings Press, for Margaret Randall

      First Wings Press Edition

      Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-916727-80-2

      ePub ISBN: 978-1-60940-159-7

      Kindle ISBN: 978-1-60940-160-3

      Library PDF ISBN: 978-1-60940-161-0

      Wings Press

      627 E. Guenther

      San Antonio, Texas 78210

      Phone/fax: (210) 271-7805

      On-line catalogue and ordering:www.wingspress.com

      All Wings Press titles are distributed to the trade by

      Independent Publishers Group • www.ipgbook.com

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Randall, Margaret, 1936-

      As if the empty chair : poems for the disappeared = Como si la silla vacía : poemas para los desaparecidos / Margaret Randall ; traduccion al español de Leandro Katz y Diego Fernando Guerra. -- 1st Wings Press ed.

               p. cm.

      Added t.p. title: Como si la silla vacía

      Includes bibliographical references. Text in English and Spanish

      ISBN 978-0-916727-80-2 (printed edition : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60940-159-7 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-60940-160-3 (kindle) -- ISBN 978-1-60940-161-0 (library pdf)

      1. Disappeared persons--Poetry. 2. Latin America--Poetry. I. Title. II. Title: Como si la silla vacía.

      PS3535.A56277A8 2011

      811’.54--dc22

      2010050367

      For my grandson, a mi nieto, Daniel

      Photographs by / fotografías de:

      Annabella Balduvino:

      Frontispiece / frontispicio and page 22 (all Uruguay)

      Margaret Randall:

      Pages 6, 14 (Managua, Nicaragua, 1980s), page 26 (Estelí, Nicaragua, 1980), and page 34 (Monumento a los desaparecidos, Montevideo, 2010).

      CONTENTS

      Author’s Note

      Nota de la autora

      Between Painting and Photograph

      Disappeared

      Thicker than Water

      As if the Empty Chair

      Seasons

      At Exactly the Right Time

      Another Dimension

      Her Consuelo

      The Child Magdalena Planned on Calling Sarah

      Safe in Grateful Arms

      Do I Get Out of Bed This Morning?

      Someone Lives

      Acknowledgments

      Notes on the contributors

      ÍNDICE

      Entre pintura y fotografía

      Desaparecido

      Más espesa que el agua

      Como si la silla vacía

      Estaciones

      Justo a la hora precisa

      Otra dimensión

      Su Consuelo

      La niña que Magdalena pensaba llamar Sara

      A salvo en un abrazo agradecido

      ¿Me levanto esta mañana?

      Alguien vive

      Agradecimientos

      Notas de las colaboradoras

      There are no innocents among the disappeared.

      Every one of them was guilty

      of wanting a better world.

      —Carlos Caillabet

      Entre los desaparecidos no hay inocentes.

      Todos fueron culpables

      de querer un mundo mejor.

      —Carlos Caillabet

      AUTHOR’S NOTE

      Throughout Latin America in the 1970s and ‘80s, a new form of state terrorism took root and spread. It came to be known as disappearance: paramilitary forces aligned with national dictatorships, themselves supported and funded by a succession of U.S. administrations and often trained by French or Israeli experts, kidnapped people

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