>Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 >From: "Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory" <toplab@toplab.org> >Subject: Apolitical Intellectuals > >Otto Rene Castillo, born 1936, was a Guatemalan revolutionary, a >guerilla fighter, and a poet. Following the 1954 CIA-sponsored coup >that overthrew the democratic Arbenz government, Castillo went into >exile in El Salvador, where he met Roque Dalton and other writers >who helped him publish his early works. When the dictator Armas >died in 1957 he returned to Guatemala and in 1959 went to the German >Democratic Republic to study, where he received a Masters degree. >Castillo returned to Guatemala in 1964 and became active in the >Workers Party, founded the Experimental Theater of the Capital City >Municipality, and wrote and published numerous poems. That same >year, he was arrested but managed to escape, going into exile once >again, this time in Europe. Later that year he went back to Guatemala >secretly and joined one of the armed guerilla movements operating >in the Zacapa mountains. In 1967, Castillo and other revolutionary >fighters were captured; he, along with his comrades and some local >campesinos, were brutally tortured and then burned alive. > >APOLITICAL INTELLECTUALS >Otto Rene Castillo > >One day >the apolitical >intellectuals >of my country >will be interrogated >by the simplest >of our people. > >They will be asked >what they did >when their nation died out >slowly, >like a sweet fire >small and alone. > >No one will ask them >about their dress, >their long siestas >after lunch, >no one will want to know >about their sterile combats >with "the idea >of the nothing" >no one will care about >their higher financial learning. >They won't be questioned >on Greek mythology, >or regarding their self-disgust >when someone within them >begins to die >the coward's death. > >They'll be asked nothing >about their absurd >justifications, >born in the shadow >of the total life. > >On that day >the simple men will come. >Those who had no place >in the books and poems >of the apolitical intellectuals, >but daily delivered >their bread and milk, >their tortillas and eggs, >those who drove their cars, >who cared for their dogs and gardens >and worked for them, >and they'll ask: >"What did you do when the poor >suffered, when tenderness >and life >burned out of them?" > >Apolitical intellectuals >of my sweet country, >you will not be able to answer. > >A vulture of silence >will eat your gut. >Your own misery >will pick at your soul. >And you will be mute in your shame. > >--Otto Rene Castillo
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