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AMORAMERICA
is based on Canto General, the historical poems written by Pablo
Neruda, and the European and African influences in our culture, music, and dance
to America today.
Between the inspiration and the
note, between the rhythm and the dance, between the individual and a
culture, amidst the Americas.. There lies Spain. |
ACT I
AMERICA BEFORE AMERICA (1400)
My Land
without name, without America,
Equinoctial stamen, purple lance,
Your
Aroma climbed my roots up to the glass
Raised to
my lips, up to the slenderest
World as
yet unborn in my mouth.
Poem:
Amor America
SPAIN AT FIRST (1492)
 Guanahani was first in the story of martyrdom
Dancing in the palms, the
green salon was empty…
Poem:
They come through Island
AFRICA TO THE NEW WORLD (1508)
Day and
night I see the enchained…White, Blacks, Indians…
Writing
on the night’s interminable
Walls
with bruised phosphoric hands
Poem:
Castro Alves from Brasil
RISE WITH ME, AMERICAN LOVE
(1811)
 Good bye kisses, kisses of wheat
Love-bound kisses
And war
singing along
The roads
with its guitar.
Poem:
Rise with me, American Love
THE FREEDOM
(1811-1825)
Hoist it
with all the hands that fell,
Defend it
with all the hands that are joined:
And let
the unity of your invisible faces
Advance
to the final struggle with the star.
"The Freedom" represents not only the independence from
Spain and
England but the freedom of the people, the dream of democracy and the hope for
an end of discrimination against all races in the Americas.
Poems:
The Flags |
How Flags are Born |
America, I do not Invoke your Name in Vain
Reencuentro -
The Earth's Name is Juan
ACT II
EL SUEÑO AMERICANO
- THE AMERICAN DREAM -
(1480-1890)
"The American
Dream," the promise of land, free expression and religion, democratic
living and the illusions of finding riches in
America, moved the
hearts of European immigrants to the
New World.
From 1840-1860, the largest immigration to
North America
was by the Irish, having endured the Potato famine. The largest immigration to
South America, mainly to Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, was by the Spanish,
Italian, and Portuguese from 1890-1900.
"Sueño Americano," represents the largest immigrations to
the Americas
and celebrates the rhythms that influenced the music, dance and culture of the
Americas.
Poem:
Let Woodcutter Awaken
THE NEW
AMERICA
RUMBA Y SALSA:
1880-1990. (African and European influences). Rhythms based on Afro-Cuban
dances such as the danzon, cha cha cha, guaguanco, guaracha, mambo and son
montuno. During the 1940s an 1950s salsa musicians moved to USA, particularly
New York, where the style partly mixed with jazz, and "Latin Jazz" developed as
a combination of jazz structures and salsa rhythms.
BOLERO:
1880-1940
(African and European influence, created by Afro-Cuban culture). During the
first part of the 20th century, the "montuno" influenced the bolero creating
forms such as the bolero-son and bolero-mambo.
TANGO:
1890-1955 (European and African influence). The tango is the most important
popular music genre that originated in
Argentina
and Uruguay. It symbolizes the hopes, successes and failures of the millions of
immigrants who were concentrated in the big cities since the late 19th century.
The internationalization of the tango took place during 1920s with Carlos Gardel.
PEACE IN THE
AMERICAS
(finale)
"The stars of
America are your Nation, and your home without doors is the Earth"
Poem:
Rain of Peace
POEMS
BY PABLO NERUDA
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AMOR AMERICA (1400) |
AMOR AMERICA (1400) |
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Before the wig and the dress coat
there were rivers, arterial rivers: There were cordilleras, jagged waves where
the condor and the snow seemed immutable: there was dampness and dense growth, the thunder
as yet unnamed, the planetary pampas.
Man was dust, earthen vase, and eyelid of tremulous loam, the shape of
clay he was Carib jug, Chibcha stone, imperial cup or Araucanian silica.
Tender and bloody was he, but on the grip of his weapon of moist flint,
the initials of the earth were written.
No one could remember them afterward: the wind forgot them, the language of water
was buried, the keys were lost or flooded with silence or blood.
Life was not lost, pastoral brothers. but like a wild rose
a red drop fell into the dense growth, and a lamp of earth was extinguished.
I am here to tell the story. From the peace of the buffalo
to the pummeled sands of the land’s end, in the accumulated spray of the Antarctic light,
and through precipitous tunnels of shady Venezuelan peacefulness.
I searched for you, my father, young warrior of darkness and copper,
or you, nuptial plant, indomitable hair, mother cayman, metallic dove, I, Inca of the loam,
touched the stone and said: Who awaits me? And I closed my hand around a fistful of empty flint.
But I walked among the Zapotec flowers and the light was soft like a deer
and the shade was a green eyelid.
My land without name, without America, equinoctial stamen, purple lance,
your aroma climbed my roots up to the glass raised to my lips, up to the slenderest
word as yet unborn in my mouth.
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Antes de la peluca y la casaca fueron los rios, rios
arteriales: fueron las cordilleras, en cuya onda raida el condor o la nieve parecian
inmoviles: fue la humedad y la espesura, el trueno sin nombre todavia, las pampas
planetarias.
El hombre tierra fue, vasija, parparo del barro tremulo, forma de la
arcilla, fue cantaro caribe, piedra chibcha, copa imperial o silice araucana.
Tierno y sangriento fue, pero en la empunadura de su arma
de cristal humedecido, las iniciales de la tierra estaban escritas.
Nadie pudo recordarlas despues: el viento las
olvido, el idioma del agua fue enterrado, las claves se perdieron o se inundaron de silencio o
sangre.
No se perdio la vida, hermanos pastorales. Pero como una rosa salvaje
cayo una gota roja en la espesura y se apago una lampara de tierra.
No estoy aqui para contar la historia. Desde la paz del bufalo
hasta las azotadas arenas de la tierra final, en las espumas acumuladas de la luz
antartica, y por las madrigueras despenadas de la sombria paz venezolana, te buzque padre
mio, joven guerrero de tiniebla y cobre oh tu, planta nupcial, cabellera
indomable, madre caiman, metalica paloma.
Yo incasico del legamo, Toque la tierra y dije: Quien
me espera? y aprete la mano sobre un punado de cristal vacio.
Pero anduve entre flores zapotecas y dulce era la luz como un
venado, y era la sombra como un parpado verde.
Tierra sin nombre, sin America, estambre
equinoccial, lanza de purpura, tu aroma me trepo por las raices hasta la copa que bebia, hasta la mas delgada
palabra aun no nacida de mi boca.
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THEY COME THROUGH THE ISLANDS
(1493) |
VIENEN POR LAS ISLAS
(1493) |
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Spain - the butchers razed the islands.
Guanahani was first in the story of martyrdom.
The children of clay saw their smile shattered, beaten their fragile stature of deer,
and even in death they did not understand.
They were bound and tortured, burned and branded, bitten and buried.
And when time finished its waltzing twirl, dancing in the palms,
the green salon was empty.
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Los carniceros desolaron las islas. Guanahani fue la primera
en la historia de los martirios.
Los hijos de la arcilla vieron rota su sonrisa, golpeada
su fragil estatura de venados y aun en la muerte no entendian.
Fueron amarrados y heridos, fueron quemados y abrasados,
fueron mordidos y enterrados.
Y cuando el tiempo dio su vuelta de vals bailando en las
palmeras, el salon verde estaba vacio.
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CASTRO ALVES FROM BRAZIL |
CASTRO ALVES FROM BRASIL
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For whom did you sing?
did you sing for the flower? for the water whose beauty sings words to the
stones? did you sing for those eyes, for the truncated profile of the one
you then loved? for springtime?
"I sang for the slaves who sailed aboard the
ships like a dark cluster from the tree of wrath, and the ship was bled in
the seaport, leaving us the burden of stolen blood.
"I sang in those days against the inferno,
against the sharp tongues of greed, against the gold drenched in the
tempest, against the hand that brandished the whip, against the directors
of darkness."
From central america night and day i see
martyrdom, day and night i see the enchained_whites, blacks,
indians_writing on the night’s interminablewalls with bruised phosphoric
hands. |
Tu para quien cantaste?
para la flor cantaste? para el agua cuya hermosura dice palabras a las
piedras? cantaste para los ojos, para el perfil cortado de la que amaste
entonces? para la primavera?
-Cante para los esclavos, ellos sobre los barcos
como el racimo oscuro del arbol de la ira viajaron, y en el puerto se
desangro el navio dejandonos el peso de una sangre robada.
-Cante en aquellos dias contra el infierno, contra las
afiladas lenguas de codicia, contra el oro empapado en el tormento, contra
la mano que empunaba el latigo, contra los directores de tienieblas.
Centro america de noche y dia veo los martirios, de dia
y noche veo al encadenado, al rubio, al negro al indio escribiendo con
manos golpeadas y fosforicas en las interminables paredes de la noche. |
RISE WITH ME AMERICAN LOVE
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SUBE CONMIGO, AMOR AMERICANO
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Rise with me, American love.
Kiss the secret stones with me. Rise up to be born with me, my brother. Give me your hand from the deep
zone of your disseminated sorrow.
You’ll not return from the bottom of the rocks.
You’ll not return from subterranean time.
Give me silence, water, hope. Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.
Cling to my body like magnets. Hasten to my veins and to my mouth. Speak through my words and my blood.
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Sube conmigo, Amor Americano. Besa
conmigo las piedras secretas. Sube a nacer conmigo hermano. Dame la mano desde
la profunda zona de tu dolor diseminado.
No volveras del fondo de las rocas, no volveras del
tiempo subterraneo. Dadme el silencio, el agua, la esperanza. Dadme la lucha, el
hierro, los volcanes.
Apegadme los cuerpos como imanes. Acudid a mis venas y
a mi boca. Hablad por mis palabras y mi sangre.
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| THE FLAGS |
LAS BANDERAS
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Our flags of that fragrant time, freshly embroidered,
newborn, secret as deep love, suddenly aflame in the precious gunpowder’s blue wind.
America, vast cradle, starry space, ripe pomegranate,
your geography was suddenly filled with bees, a buzzing conducted by adobes
and stones, from hand to hand, the street was filled with clothes, like a dazed beehive.
In the night of the gunfire
the dance shone in their eyes, orange blossoms climbed their shirts, like an orange,
good-bye kisses, kisses of wheat, love-bound kisses, and war singing along
the roads with its guitar. |
Nuestras banderas de aquel tiempo
fragante, bordadas apenas, nacidas apenas, secretas como un profundo
amor,
de pronto encarnizadas por el viento azul de la polvora amada.
America, extensa cuna, espacio de estrella,
granada madura, de pronto se lleno de abejas tu geografia, de susurros
conducidos por los adobes y las piedras, de mano en mano, se lleno de
trajes la calle como un panal atolondrado.
En la noche de los
disparos el baile brillaba en los ojos, subia como una naranja el azahar a
las camisas, besos de adios, besos de harina, el amor amarraba besos, y la
guerra cantaba con su guitarra por los caminos. |
| HOW
FLAGS ARE BORN |
COMO
NACEN LAS BANDERAS |
That’s how our flags are to
this day the people embroidered them with their tenderness, sewed the
rags with their suffering.
They fastened
the star with their burning hands. And cut, from shirt or firmament,
blue for the country’s star, the red, drop by drop, was being born. |
Estan asi hasta hoy nuestras
banderas. el pueblo las bordo con su ternura, cosio los trapos con su
sufrimiento.
Clavo la estrella con su mano ardiente. y corto,
de camisa o firmamento, azul para la estrella de la patria. el rojo,
gota a gota iba naciendo. |
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AMERICA, I DO NOT INVOKE YOUR NAME IN VAIN |
AMERICA, NO INVOCO TU NOMBRE EN VANO
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America, I do not invoke your
name in vain. When I told the sword to my heart, when I endure the leaks
in my soul, when your new day penetrates me through the windows.
I’m off and I’m in the light that produce me,
I sleep and rise in your essential dawn, sweet as grapes and terrible,
conductor of sugar and punishment, soaked in the seed of your species,
nursed on the blood of your legacy. (the freedom) |
America, no invoco tu
nombre en vano. Cuando sujeto al corazon la espada, cuando aguanto en el
alma la gotera, cuando por las ventanas.
Un nuevo dia tuyo me penetra, soy y estoy en la
luz que me produce, vivo en la sombra que me determina, duermo y despierto
en tu esencial aurora: dulce como las uvas, y terrible, conductor del
azucar y el castigo, empapado en esperma de tu especie, amamantando en
sangre de tu herencia. |
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THE EARTH’S NAME IS JUAN
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LA TIERRA SE LLAMA
JUAN |
People, order was born of
suffering.
Your victorious flag was born of order.
Hoist it with all the hands that fell,
defend it with all the hands that are joined:
and let the unity of your invisible faces
advance to the final struggle to the star. |
Pueblo, del sufrimiento
nacio el orden.
Del orden tu bandera ha nacido.
Levantala con todas las manos que cayeron,
defiendela con todas las manos que se juntan:
y que avance a la lucha final, hacia la estrella
la unidad de tus rostros invencibles. |
| LET
THE WOODCUTTER AWAKEN |
QUE
DESPIERTE EL LEÑADOR |
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Let’s think in all the earth, bringing the love on the table.
I don’t want the blood coming back to the bread and to the music.
Let the white youth, the black youth, march, singing, smiling and conquering
I want the miner, the little girl, the lawyer, the doll manufacturer, the people, to accompany me,
let’s go to the movies and set out to drink the reddest wine.
I don’t want to solve anything.
I came here to sing so that you’d sing with me.
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Pensemos en toda la tierra, golpeando con amor en la mesa.
No quiero que vuleva la sangre a empapar el pan, los frijoles, la musica.
Que marchen cantando, sonriendo y venciendo el joven blanco, el joven
negro. Quiero que venga conmigo el minero, la nina, el abogado, el marinero, el fabricante de munecas,
el extranjero, el hombre, que entremos al cine y salgamos a beber el vino mas
rojo.
Yo no vengo a resolver nada. Yo vine aqui para cantar y para que cantes conmigo.
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RAIN OF PEACE (Let the
Woodcutter Awaken)
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LLUVIA DE PAZ (Que Despierte el Leñador)
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Peace for the coming twilights, peace for the bridge, peace for the wine,
peace for the letters that seek me and that rise in my blood entwining the old song with land and loves,
peace for the city in the morning when bread rises, peace for the Mississippi River, river of roots,
peace for my brother’s shirt, peace for the mailman from the house like the day,
peace for the choreographer who shouts to the vines with megaphone, peace for all the wheat that need brings forth,
for all the love that will seek foliage, peace for all the living: peace for all lands and waters.
Here I say good-bye, I’m returning home, in my dreams.
I love you all, I love even even the roots of my cold country.
If I had to die a thousand times I want to die there: if I had to be born a thousand times
I want to be born there.
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Paz para los crepusculos que vienen, paz para el puente, paz para el
vino, paz para las letras que me buscan y que en mi sangre suben enredando el viejo canto con tierra y
amores, paz para la ciudad en la manana cuando despierta el pan,paz para el rio Mississippi, rio de las
raices: paz para la camisa de mi hermano, paz para el cartero de casa en casa como el dia,
paz para el coreografo que grita con un embudo en las enredaderas, paz para todo el trigo que debe nacer,
para todo e amor que buzcara follaje, paz para todos los que viven: paz para todas las tierras y las
aguas.
Yo aqui me despido, vuelvo a mi casa, en mis suenos. Soy nada mas que un poeta: os amo a todos
amo hasta las raices de mi pequeno pais frio.
Si tuviera que morir mil veces alli quiero morir: si tuviera que nacer mil veces
alli quiero nacer.
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PABLO NERUDA
 Pseudonym
of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto (1904-1973), Chilean poet, who is considered
one of the major poets of the 20th century.
Neruda was born in
Parral. He began to write poetry in his teens and studied to be a teacher. His
first book, privately printed, was Crepusculario (1923). In 1924 his Viente
poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song
of Despair, 1969) became a best-seller, making him one of Latin America’s
most famous young poets. A highly imaginative writer, Neruda began his career as
a symbolist (see Symbolist
Movement), then became a
surrealist (see Surrealism),
and finally a realist, forsaking the traditional formal framework of poetry for
a simpler, more down-to-earth form of expression.
In recognition of his literary eminence, Neruda was appointed to
the Chilean consular service, and from 1927 to 1944 he held posts in Asia, Latin
America, and Spain. A political radical, he became prominent in the Chilean
Communist Party, serving in the Senate from 1945 to 1948. After the Communist
Party was outlawed in Chile in 1948, Neruda and many others had to choose
between arrest or exile. From 1948 until the end of Chile’s ban on Communism
in 1952, Neruda wrote and traveled in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(USSR), Europe, and Mexico. During this time he wrote and published Canto
General (1950; Canto General, 1991), an epic poem portraying Spanish
America and its history from a Marxist viewpoint. Neruda returned to Chile in
1952. In 1970 he was the Communist Party’s candidate for the presidency, and
from 1970 to 1972 he was the Chilean ambassador to France. In 1953 Neruda was
awarded the Lenin Prize for Peace, and in 1971 he won the Nobel Prize in
literature.
Neruda’s numerous other works include Residencia en la
tierra (1933; Residence on Earth, 1946), poems full of tragic,
despairing images of the havoc wreaked on earth by civilization; Odas
elementales (1954; Elementary Odes, 1961); and Alturas de Macchu
Picchu (1958; The Heights of Macchu Picchu, 1966). Selected Poems
of Pablo Neruda (1961) contains a representative collection of his poems in
the original Spanish, with English translations.
IMPORTANT DATES
| • |
COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA 1492
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| • |
JOHN CABOT SAILS FROM ENGLAND1497 |
| • |
PEDRO ALVAREZ CABRAL SAILS FROM PORTUGAL TO BRAZIL 1500 |
| • |
PONCE DE LEON FROM SPAIN TO FLORIDA 1513 |
| • |
HERNAN CORTEZ FROM SPAIN TO MEXICO 1521 |
| • |
JACK CARTIER FROM FRANCE TO CANADA 1534 |
| • |
FRANCISCO CORONADO FROM SPAIN TO NORTH AMERICAN SOUTH WEST
1540-1542 |
| • |
JOHN SMITH FROM ENGLAND TO JAMESTOWN (First British Settlement)
1607 |
| • |
FRENCH-INDIAN WAR (BRITAIN GAINS CANADA FROM FRANCE AND RECEIVES FLORIDA
FROM SPAIN) BRITAIN CONTROLLED ALL NORTH AMERICA FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER 1763
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| • |
NORTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 1776 |
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SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 1811-1825 |
| • |
SLAVES-IMMIGRANTS DISCRIMINATION (RACE AND RELIGION)
1776-1860 |
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THE GRAN COLOMBIA IS SEPARATED 1829 |
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NORTH AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1860 |
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LINCOLN AGAINST THE SLAVERY 1850-1865 |
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END OF THE SLAVERY 1865
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BLACKS AS CITIZEN 1868
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BLACKS COULD VOTE 1870
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LARGEST IMMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA BY THE IRISH 1840-1860 |
| • |
LARGEST IMMIGRATION TO SOUTH AMERICA (VENEZUELA, ARGENTINA AND BRAZIL)
FROM SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND ITALY. 1890-1900 |
| • |
LARGEST IMMIGRATION OF AFRICANS TO THE CARIBBEAN MAINLY TO JAMAICA
STARTED IN 1508 |
| • |
SLAVERY (AFRICAN AND INDIANS) WAS ABOLISHED IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN BETWEEN 1873-1910 |
| • |
BRITISH CULTURE BECOMES INFLUENTIAL IN IRELAND 1600 |
| • |
IRISH REBELLED AGAINST BRITISH 1916 |
| • |
CIVIL WAR IN IRELAND INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITISH 1922
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| • |
IRISH FREE STATE, CUT ALL TIES WITH BRITAIN AND BECOME THE INDEPENDENT
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 1949 |
| • |
PROTESTANTS AND CELTICS AGAINST THE ROMAN CATHOLICS IN IRELAND 1960 |
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