Nitza M. Hernández-López

Fly High My Son *

“Ya no tienen en sus manos una manera 
de golpearnos más hondo… Hijo, te recordaremos 
minuto tras minuto en el resto de esta lucha
de todos nosotros, que será el resto de nuestras vidas.”

  — Juan Mari Bras en el funeral de su hijo
    Santiago (Chagui) Mari Pesquera

It would have been different 

if I had been next to you

when you drove alone, your sister's car 

—that infamous Wednesday

you went to pick up your nephew,

unaware it would be your last day.

Perhaps you didn’t see someone strange 

        driving after you 

just the bright sun hidden behind clouds.

I wonder if you recognized

those who assaulted and kidnapped you,

that so-called friend /the one who triggered 

the 38 caliber gun 

on your innocent fresh right temple,

a guy whose mental health became

the perfect choice  for a master plan.

It would have been different 

if I had held his hand with my left arm

hugged you tight  with my other arm

to hide you inside my heart

mi hijo/my eldest son, en su plenitud de vida.

It would have been different
if I had perished instead of you,

assassinated by those who hated us

—for our supreme ideals.

I wonder how many flights

you would have made around the Caribbean skies,

you preferred to be a pilot 

—a condor in the heights

you defied the USA forced recruitment

to go kill Vietnamese people 

—that horrific  war.

I wonder how many other protests you

would have joined to demand justice

—peace and freedom

for our beautiful archipelago 

—still colonized by the empire.

Everything has changed for me / my son,

after you left this world,

but there is no room in me for revenge.

Last night while looking at the brightest star

I felt your last breath on this realm

your spirit lifted in the cosmos.

Your martyrdom will transform into heroism,

—en resistencia de nuestro pueblo boricua

—en lucha por una patria libre.

This poem assumes the voice of a father on the day of his son’s funeral. Santiago (Chagui) Mari Pesquera
was murdered on March 24, 1976, when he was 23. He was the eldest son of Juan Mari Bras, the late leader of the independence and socialist movement in Puerto Rico. At that time, he was running for Governor for the Puerto Rican Socialist Party.