Report: Chris Nagler's Nonsite Talk on Recent Events in El Salvador

The following are some notes from Chris Nagler's talk on El Salvador, from the Nonsite Collective's April 26 meeting (http://www.nonsitecollective.org/node/621)

In addition to my notes, I've pasted below two texts Chris presented:

>> the first is a fragment of Chris's translation of a speech by Roger Blandino, mayor of Mejicanos, suburb of San Salvador – given March 17th at the Mejicanos Community Center, 2 days after FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes was elected president of El Salvador.

This text contains a remarkable insight regarding the relation between political change and bodily sensation.

>> the second is a translation of My Militants, by Roque Dalton.

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About his talk, Chris wrote: Latin America has historically been a testing ground for U.S. imperialism, from state repression of popular movements to neo-liberalism and economic ‘structural adjustment.’ So what does it mean for an increasing number of Latin American countries to be asserting independence and building momentum for an alternative vision for Latin America? I'll talk a little about my experience as electoral observer of the FMLN’s recent electoral victories in El Salvador in the context of popular resistance movements in El Salvador historically, and in the context of the current moment in the region. I'll also say a few words about the palpably changing role of U.S. influence and hegemony in Latin America, now that we're post-Bush era. What prospects do we have now for a more integrated hemisphere?

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from my notes: "former communist guerrilla party wins" // inside a big cinderblock hangar sort of place // a gender violence sort of space // fighting for 3 possible outcomes // even with the fraud, we won // how many ghosts, the accidental ghosts // using the voter ID cards of many dead people // an unpurged voter registry // who being the least prepared // we will receive a destroyed country // to leave behind the things that aren't so important // elections having to do with sensations in the body // politics = struggle for a dignified life // envy for the physical sensation of victory // envy of being somehow outside of history (don't be envious, history is coming) // what would a liberatory nationalism even look like here? // how does the production of subjectivities link up with the production of politics at the level of the body // dip yr finger into this staining ink // converting to an import economy // vagrancy laws being the primary means of enforcing enclosures // language at the edge of experience, pushing into experience // "needs a crowbar to move this subject" // a level phrase on level ground // our limit in common // language as an act with no guarantee // "there's no channel of violence that's authorized / in a world where capital flows can happen / how do small countries protect themselves / from this vulture class." //

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Fragment of a speech by Roger Blandino, mayor of Mejicanos, suburb of San Salvador – given March 17th at the Mejicanos Community Center, 2 days after FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes was elected president of El Salvador:

Today, on top of the happiness we’ve had, we’re happy you’re here.

It’s a happiness about the effect that you, specifically, and the solidarity movement more generally has had in El Salvador.

When we were in the mountains 20 years ago you mobilized people to support us,, and acknowledge us all over the world as people fighting for our rights.

Always solidarity and respect have gone hand in hand here.

This is a victory for our martyrs. A privilege to see victory on this day. A week ago we saw three possible outcomes

1. that fraud could defeat the people, as it has done for the last 100 years

but we saw that 2. Our people were ready to defend the struggle

Also 3. That the TSE (Supreme Electoral Tribunal) might fail to recognize the results. 3 years ago they tried to steal San Salvador in this way but after four days of constant mobilization the TSE recognized our legitimate victory.

We didn’t trust the government, nor the TSE, nor the media, but we never lost the trust in our people.

A few weeks ago we had a protest in Villa Olympica. At 12am midnite there were women leaving their houses in nightclothes to protest, we protested all night and into the morning.

Because of this level of involvement, even with the fraud we won

If anyone knows how many Guatemalans Hondurans Nicaraguans, if anyone knows how many ghosts, the ghosts of our grandfathers and grandmothers, the ghosts of the murdered and the accidental ghosts, if anyone knows how many ghosts were forced to vote for Rodrigo Avila, it is ARENA. They know.

They know the real margin of our victory.

The media report 700,000 but it could be 4 times that.

We don’t care, we won anyways. We are happy
Viva el pueblo Salvadoreno
Viva el pueblo norteamericano
Y que viva Mauricio Funes!
Que Viva!

At the same time we know we are in a world crisis. We in El Salvador can see that this could be the largest crisis in the history of the modern world, and we also know that our country is the least prepared in the western hemisphere to confront this crisis. We’re reaching out to our international allies.

We will receive a destroyed country.
Hospitals without medicine, schools without equipment, millions of homes without water or food, thousands of manzanas of land without people to work it, poisoned rivers
A basic food basket that costs $600 a month when the average wage is $400.
There is a deep crisis in the youth of the country as well.

We have to reorient the resources of the state, we have to leave behind the things that aren’t so important. Do we know how to leave behind the things that aren’t so important?

In January when they stole San Salvador we had a crisis. We went out every day for a month to agitate, and finally we were able to put ARENA on the defensive, especially for the last fifteen days, despite the fact that, on television, there were 10 ARENA ads for every one FMLN ad.
You see the thing is these elections have partly to do with political arguments, but they are also about sensations, sensations in the body, they have to do with the intimate psychology of the masses and with the physical sensation of victory.

They attack us with the technology of the media and we respond with the popular struggle.

A few months ago ideologues and political analysts said this period of transition from traditional governments, the ones that have had their power bases in the colonial oligarchies in all these southern lands, to new governments was coming to an end. There was triumph in Ecuador, triumph in Bolivia, and then the referendum in Venezuela, and now that tide has risen here, despite what they said everyday in the newspapers and on television. You know that voice of doubt that arises, the vicious one, that whenever you have a thought about your own capability or a belief in something, the voice that like a reflex immediately states the opposite. Well, you learn to see the TV that say.

Its not a struggle for power for the sake of power, it’s a struggle for the power to have a dignified life.

Imperialism is not for free, there are consequences. The exploitation of the 3rd world by corporations has massive consequences for all of us no matter who we believe ourselves to be. We will see this to be the case more and more in the years to come.

(Translated by Chris Nagler)

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My Militants By Roque Dalton

1. Therapeutics

The writers prepared a mortal book   
For the Señor presidente of the Republic

The President of the Republic reviewed
His collection of daggers and his appointment book with Pythagoras

El Señor presidente of the Republic
Needs a crowbar to move the subject

The writers have lice

El Señor presidente of the republic wants
To kill the lice of the writers
With stabs

The writers bring themselves to the foreigner:
Under the nocturnal moon they cross the border
Their shaved heads shining.

2 Militarism 1970

I am a Levite soldier
One of the chancellory . . .

3
The P.S.. (prodigal sons)

The English soldiers killed
Chipriotas
Arabs
Tanzanians
Georgians
Persians
Hindus
Pakistanis
Chinese
Turks
Polynesians

The English soldiers today kill
Irish

It is such that the tiger returns to its home
To the culture of the Christian
To the civilization of the occident

Such a sister the tiger is to men:
In homeland, in the culture of the dead.

4 Aquelarre

Go ahead General
And take a sip of the aguachirle
Your destiy is written on the walls
And hope walks in palanquin to the sun

You see, my advantage is that I have a marsupial heart
That guffaws from its fabulous dungeon

Might I introduce you to this fetus cadaver
Mute like an austral marsh
Heretic
In this fraternity of gallows

Please, sit yourself down in this mammoth’s cranium

Wash yourself only there
In that blood puddle.