Fifteen years ago, on Saturday, November 1, 2008, we filmed scenes live during the Todos Santos celebrations in a cemetery in El Alto, Bolivia, where reside the tombs of the martyrs of the 2003 Guerra del gas.
So many Bolivian friends and professionals participated in the filming of the fictitious buriel of Hochi, a character in my historical novel, Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace.
People were moved to participate in the making of this movie in order to honor their own experiences and the experiences of so many Bolivians during the U.S.-supported Bolivian government massacre of people peacefully protesting the proposed export of Bolivia's natural gas to Chile, where it would get processed and sold back to Bolivia as well as shipped to Mexico and California.
Los Sanganos de Sopocachi danced in the film. Los Heraldos from Ilave, Puno, Peru played panpipes, sikus, in the film.
My friends kept asking me when the film would come out. After a few years they stopped asking. But I kept working on it all this time. Filming more in a DIY studio in Portland, Oregon. Drawing lots and lots of drawings to supplement the story telling. Composing and improvising music with friends. Working with Bev Standish of Digital Elf Studios to clean up the audio of the dialog recorded in Portland, and editing most of the first section of the movie, as we sat side-by-side in front of her computer. (The first section of the movie is based on chapter one, "Dancing at the Blockade" of the book Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace). Thank you, Bev!
And learning to edit, working for months with the brilliant, kind and patient people at Open Signal / Portland Community Media to complete the first section and edit the rest of the movie, add the soundtrack and more!
Yep, for 15 years I've working on this movie sometimes a little, and this year a lot. And now the 89-minute movie, Panpipes for Peace, is on YouTube for all to see. For free.
EVENT POSTPONED: due to a public safety incident about a block away from our office, we’re postponing our event tonight until further notice. Thank you for understanding!
I'm honored to be a Special Guest reading with authors from Desert Palm Press and Launchpoint Press. I'll be reading from my bilingual PEN Award for Poetry in Translation finalist book, Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia's most celebrated author, writes timeless feminist wisdom for today.
“There is a mysterious fire in her chest,” the groundbreaking feminist Bolivian poet Adela Zamudio (1854-1928) wrote in a work whose title declares, with blunt force, how she viewed herself: “Poet.” That “mysterious fire,” a few lines later, is called “sacred,” the “shard of a shattered soul,” and the very “blood of the heart.” For Zamudio, that fire was both Art itself and “the Idea,” and the act of pulling it out from one’s self and giving it voice in a society hostile to artists in general, poets in particular, and women above all else—well, that was an act of courage.
Now, almost a century after her death, Zamudio’s rousing, visceral, defiant work is at last available to the English-speaking world, thanks to this searing, sensitive translation from Yetter.
Yetter’s choices—from individual word choices to her selections of poems and prose pieces—illuminate the sweep and heat of the fire in the poet’s chest. The pieces here reveal Zamudio’s passions, interests, beliefs, and career, from the powerfully explicated feminism of poems like “Born a Man,” to her handling of subjects like depression and the feeling that one must wear a false face in society. These verses feel urgent and timely, and poems like “Masquerade” could be about Instagram: “In the dance of the world /our joy / is a dazzling garment /of fantasy / we use to cover /the hidden sadness / we repress.”
Even poems with traditional romantic forms and subjects (“To a Seagull,” “To a Tree”) pulse with a sense of fin-de-siècle ennui and, often, outrage about injustice, while one literally titled “End of a Century” builds to the bleak punchline of what “admirable and blessed” science has bequeathed us: the knowledge that, after our sufferings on Earth, we face the void. The long, surprising “Iron Crazy Woman,” meanwhile, and a poem of love for Zamudio’s sister, offer crucial consolations: the mystery and artistry of the former, and the deep feeling of the latter.
Takeaway: Trailblazing poems from a Bolivian feminist in English at long last.
A collection of writings from Bolivian poet, essayist, and feminist activist Zamudio (1854-1928) addresses enduring social issues.
Though the bulk of the author’s body of work, which spans poetry, prose, and nonfiction, dates back a century or more (the pieces here were originally published between 1887 and 1942), it’s only recently that political and social conditions have renewed interest in her writings and facilitated their translations for a global audience. This collection has two sections, one for poetry and one for prose, focused on themes including feminism (“Born a Man”), Indigenous identity and revolution (“End of the Century”), mental health (“To a Suicide”), and the viability of a battered society (“Masquerade”)—subjects that Zamudio grappled with as a woman far ahead of her time, culturally speaking. Yetter’s translations aptly retain the exigencies of the author’s writing, though the poems do lose their rhyme schemes in English. In the prose section, Zamudio employs an almost epistolary, introspective style to document many of Bolivia’s societal and political foibles; one story—“Yesterday’s Meeting”—uses an animal motif (much like George Orwell later used in Animal Farm (1945)) to relay bureaucratic tensions and flaws in democracy. Zamudio employs the struggles of women and Indigenous people as fodder, both for her own work and for broader revolution. Her imagery is both whimsical and grounded, optimistic and learned; as she writes in “Poet,” “it is necessary that she must dive into / Life’s most bitter dregs; / To know horrid misfortune / And rugged paths; / Hurt by life’s cliffs and thistles, / Wounded by the shocks of life. / That is inspiration!” We watch and read the news to understand what’s going on in the world, but we also seek out art to contextualize how all these events make us feel and show us how to get through them; Zamudio’s work serves these purposes brilliantly.
Thank you to everyone who attended my book reading/conversation yesterday with my esteemed PEN Award for Poetry in Translation finalist (and winner) colleagues: Daniel Borzutzky, Conor Bracken, Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., and Tess Lewis. Oregon's Literary Arts' Programs for Writers Coordinator, Jessica Meza-Torres, facilitated our Zoom event with her laid-back calm presence and capable expertise. We were in good hands! You can see the video recording on Literary Arts' YouTube channel.
I'm thrilled beyond words that my bilingual book Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose was selected as a Finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation! PEN America awards are the Oscars of the U.S. literary world. Of course I (and my Fuente Fountain Books' editors Tania Cano and Michael Favala Goldman) will travel to NYC for the March 2nd gala Awards Ceremony!
Here's more about the book: First book in English showcasing the life and writings of
Bolivia's most celebrated writer and educator, Adela Zamudio. Her birthday is a national holiday in Bolivia. Self-taught,
Zamudio was the mother of feminism and women's education in Bolivia,
and was active for Indigenous People's rights. The President of Bolivia
crowned her with gold laurel leaves in honor of her cultural
contributions. Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, translated
from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter, presents a bilingual overview of
Zamudio's work, much of which was previously untranslated. Several
chapters, including the Prolog by Bolivian Zamudio scholar
Virginia Ayllón, outline Zamudio's biography and the cultural context in
which she wrote. Adela Zamudio's celebration of lesbian love and her
ironic cultural critiques continue to resonate today.
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Yay!!!! I am honored to have received this prestigious award. Now more people will become acquainted with Adela Zamudio and her writings.
Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, translated from Spanish by Lynette Yetter Paperback ISBN-13: 9780984375677 eBook ISBN-13: 9780984375684 320 pages
"We should all learn about Adela Zamudio, a major Latin American figure, by reading this timely book." - Roberto González Echevarría, Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature, Yale University
First book in English showcasing the life and writings of Bolivia's most celebrated writer and educator, Adela Zamudio (1854-1928). Her birthday is a national holiday in Bolivia. Self-taught, Zamudio was the mother of feminism and women's education in Bolivia, and was active for Indigenous People's rights. The President of Bolivia crowned her with gold laurel leaves in honor of her cultural contributions. Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose, translated from the Spanish by Lynette Yetter, presents a bilingual overview of Zamudio's work, much of which was previously untranslated. Several chapters, including the prolog by Bolivian Zamudio scholar Virginia Ayllón, outline Zamudio's biography and the cultural context in which she wrote. Adela Zamudio's celebration of lesbian love and her ironic cultural critiques continue to resonate today.
Creative flow. Translating Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia's most celebrated writer. Her birthday, October 11th, is a national holiday. I'm fortunate to be the first translator of much of her work into English. My translation of her poem "Poeta" was published in Stanford University's issue 20 of Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation.
Fuente Fountain Books recently published my bilingual book Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. I'm thrilled that the book right now is in the second round of judging for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation!
November 30th I gave a talk (in Spanish) where I analyzed Zamudio's allegorical story "Yesterday's Meeting." (It's possible that Zamudio's story inspired George Orwell's later similar work, Animal Farm.) The Seminario Internacional Perú XIX "Autoridad, ciudadanía y cuerpos: desplazamientos y fracturas en la modernidad" in Lima Peru will have video recordings of the conference available soon on https://www.facebook.com/RielPeruXIX/videos. It was a trip for me to get up at 5 am in Portland, Oregon to present my paper via Zoom at 6 am (9 am Lima time). I love how virtual conferences let us connect with interesting folks all around the world--folks who are passionate about the same sort of stuff we care about. I enjoyed sharing a synopsis of my Reed College Master of Arts in Liberal Studies thesis, Domination and Justice in the Allegorical Story "La reunión de ayer" by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia.
I'm honored that in early 2023, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal will be publishing my English translation of Adela Zamudio's love poem to her sister, "Yesterday Afternoon."
I feel like I've mind-melded with Adela Zamudio. It feels deep and powerful, tender and awe-inspiring. And fun. Adela Zamudio has a great sense of humor! I hope you enjoy reading Adela Zamudio as much as I (and the many people whose praise fills the opening pages of Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose) do.
* * *
La creatividad fluye. Estoy traduciendo Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), la escritora más célebre de Bolivia. Su cumpleaños, el 11 de octubre, es un feriado nacional. Tengo la suerte de ser la primera traductora de gran parte de su obra al inglés. Mi traducción de su poema "Poeta" se publicó en el número 20 de Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation de la Universidad de Stanford.
Fuente Fountain Books publicó recientemente mi libro bilingüe Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. ¡Estoy encantada de que el libro ahora mismo esté en la segunda ronda de evaluación del Premio PEN de Poesía en Traducción!
El 30 de noviembre di una charla (en español) donde analicé el cuento alegórico de Zamudio "La reunión de ayer". (Es posible que la historia de Zamudio haya inspirado el trabajo similar posterior de George Orwell, Animal Farm). El Seminario Internacional Perú XIX "Autoridad, ciudadanía y cuerpos: desplazamientos y fracturas en la modernidad" en Lima Perú tendrá grabaciones de video de la conferencia disponibles pronto en https ://www.facebook.com/RielPeruXIX/videos. Fue dichoso levantarme a las 5 am en Portland, Oregón para presentar mi ponencia vía Zoom a las 6 am (9 am hora de Lima). Me encanta cómo las conferencias virtuales nos permiten conectarnos con personas interesantes de todo el mundo, personas apasionadas por el mismo tipo de cosas que nos importan. Disfruté compartiendo una sinopsis de mi tesis de maestría en estudios liberales de Reed College, Domination and Justice in the Allegorical Story "La reunión de ayer" by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia.
Me siento honrado de que a principios de 2023, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal publicará mi traducción al inglés del poema de amor de Adela Zamudio a su hermana, "Yesterday Afternoon".
Siento que me he fusionado mentalmente con Adela Zamudio. Se siente profundo y poderoso, tierno e inspirador. Y divertido. ¡Adela Zamudio tiene un gran sentido del humor! Espero que disfruten leyendo Adela Zamudio tanto como yo (y las muchas personas cuyos elogios llenan las primeras páginas del libro bilingüe Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose).
Thank you for thinking deeply about
the climate crisis. When I heard your interview on PBS News Hour last night, I
was struck by your mention that manufacturing is a major contributor of CO2,
which escalates the climate crisis. This puts you—a kind person at heart, a
billionaire and founder of Microsoft—in a unique position to make major change
quickly. For example, you could urge Microsoft, starting immediately, to stop developing
new operating systems—Microsoft would from now on focus on teaching people to
repair existing devices that run existing Microsoft operating systems. All new
software would be designed to run on existing operating systems. You would be leading
the way for others to follow, like the late radical industrialist Ray Anderson
did by continually reducing the carbon footprint of his industrial carpet
manufacturing corporation, Interface, Inc. Anderson was inspired by Paul Hawkin’s
1993 book The Ecology of Commerce, which argues that the industrial
system is destroying the planet and only industry leaders are powerful enough
to stop it. Now is your opportunity to urge Microsoft to be a model of reducing
carbon footprints in our interconnected globalized society.
You could explain how new operating
systems are connected to increased manufacturing, which accelerates the climate
crisis—every new operating system makes older electronic devices obsolete and
necessitates constantly manufacturing new devices to run always newer and newer
operating systems. Manufacturing adds CO2 to the atmosphere, which adds to the
greenhouse effect that causes ever more extreme weather, and melts glaciers and
the polar ice caps. (Glaciers and polar ice caps have been regulators of
climate and sources of water for plants and animals, including humans). You
could explain that manufacturing pollutes in other ways, too, starting with the
mining of minerals used to manufacture products, and to build the factories in
which to manufacture them.
In your PBS News Hour interview you
mentioned steel and cement manufacturing as major problems. If Microsoft stopped
creating new operating systems, and focused instead on supporting already-existing
operating systems, and repair of existing electronic devices, there would be
far less need for factories manufacturing electronic devices, less need for
manufacturing the cement and steel from which those factories are built, and
less need for mining and transporting the petroleum and minerals that go into manufacturing
factory buildings for manufacturing electronic devices.
What if you present some of the many
benefits to people and planet if Microsoft were to make that one change? For
example, miners I met in Oruro and Potosi, Bolivia tell me it’s usual to die at around age
45 from silicosis they get from mining the minerals that are used to make new
electronic devices. If Microsoft stopped making new operating systems, there
would be less need for new electronic devices to be manufactured, thereby
helping miners live longer and healthier lives. Less mining also means that people,
and all the plants and animals, who live downstream from current mining
operations would have cleaner water, and they would become healthier. Huge
amounts of CO2 would stay in the ground and thereby put the brakes on
accelerating climate crisis.
The climate would benefit by Microsoft
halting creation of new operating systems and teaching people to repair
existing electronic devices that use existing operating systems. And people
would also benefit by slowing down and making do with what they have. Businesses
could be more efficient, because they wouldn’t have to be constantly retraining
their staff to learn new operating systems, or deal with business shut downs
due to bugs in new operating systems. Workers and management could instead
better focus on doing their jobs. One efficiency expert said many years ago in
a Los Angeles Times interview that running a business using typewriters and
pencils and paper was much more time efficient in the long run than a business
using computers. Because, the efficiency expert said, businesses using
computers needed workers to be constantly retrained on the ever-changing
technology, while businesses using technology that stayed the same and functioned
as reliable tools could focus all their time on doing their work. When a worker
learns how to use a tool, and that tool stays the same, the worker becomes a
better and better worker using that tool. But workers’ energies are scattered when
the tool they use constantly changes how it functions (in this case, an electronic
device with a Microsoft operating system). As I mentioned above, the late
radical industrialist Ray Anderson woke up to the damage his corporation was
causing, and immediately set out to change its ways. You are a brilliant and
caring person, and I think you can have an even bigger positive impact on
climate and people’s lives around the world by urging Microsoft to support its
existing operating systems (instead of creating new ones), and teaching people
how to repair electronic devices instead of having to buy new ones. Just like workers
hone their skills using the same tools over long periods of time, the same is
true of culture and the arts.
When artists can devote all their
energies to creating art instead of dealing with technological difficulties of
their tools, such as computer programs that suddenly are not supported by a new
operating system, imagine the art and cultural Renaissance that could flourish!
For example, animated-filmmaker Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues, Seder-Masochism)
mastered her tool, Flash 8. But newer operating systems no longer support Flash
8, so she stopped making films altogether, rather than dedicate years to master
to the same level another animation program, which would likewise become unusable
in just a few years. We can only imagine what masterpieces are lost because
Nina Paley and other independent artists’ digital tools became useless due to ever-changing
operating systems.
Therefore, Microsoft calling a halt
on new operating systems could set a major precedent for shifting the tide
towards more efficient and sustainable ways of working and living. Businesses could
have less employee stress and burn out. Art and culture could flower. People,
plants and animals could be healthier. And runaway climate crisis could slow
down.
Dear Bill Gates, you are in a unique position. By having
the brilliance and resources to create whatever you set your mind to, you can take
this opportunity to make an immediate and powerful impact on slowing down the
climate crisis by publicly urging Microsoft to support all existing operating
systems and teach people how to repair their already-existing electronic
devices, and to stop making new operating systems. The world is watching.
Lynette Yetter (Quiniapac) makes Music, Movies, Books and Art to inspire you.
Lynette played panpipes on the Academy Award Nominated documentary, "Recycled Life."
According to Northeast Intune Magazine, "If you can imagine what air, water, fire, and earth sound like in music notes, then you can imagine what Lynette Yetter’s songs sound like. ... spiritual in nature and have a worldly richness ... makes humans one with nature through the vibrations echoing in the bamboo reeds ... Her music gives nature its own expressive sound."
One song she turned into an award winning music video - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. The video shot up to #1 on a viewer requested television playlist.
Lynette has recorded two CDs (in Los Angeles and in Bolivia) - "Music of the Andes and More...," and "Inka Spirit".
You can get inspired with her novel, "Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace", her creative nonfiction book "72 Money Saving Tips for the 99%", and her PEN Award for Poetry in Translation finalist bilingual book "Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose"
