Reflection on the People’s Global Action on Migration, Development & Human Rights Mexico City

With thoughts on the Global Forum on Migration and Development, Puerto Vallarta, 2010

By Pedro Ríos

Inside the ex-convent San Hipólito
here we gather to humanize migration
against the cold pillars and walls built of stone from colonial rule that
remind me the task is heavy and
burdened by a history smeared in tones of crimson.

A scripted history that repeats with every generation
in each apprehension, detention, and deportation
a replica of that history and perennial
denial of our humanity.

How do you convince the men in suits that their way has lost us?
Will it burn their tongues if they speak of dignity and
human rights
scald their lips if they dare utter a word about
the 72 men and women massacred in Tamaulipas?

They used to point fingers at each other about it
now, silence is preferred – case closed -
because those who dreamt of working
to feed their children
were poor which means
they remain unknown;
their stories
like the dust
deep in their graves.

How do you convince the men in suits that their vision of development is
a sordid privilege over humanity?

Inside the ex-convent San Hipólito
here we gather to unearth the memories that
need to be dignified
in spite of the silence in Vallarta about them because
even when they speak of them their words will be
empty.

***