Once again Leon Gieco's song "Memoria" comes up as I work in Proyecto Desaparecidos. I translated the song and posted it to my old blog, which is now password-protected, so I'm reposting it now.
--
Old loves that are no longer here,
the hope of those who lost,
all the promises that go away,
and those who fell in any war
All is kept in memory
dream of life and history.
The deception and complicity
of the genocidaires which are free
the pardon and the punto final
to the beasts of that hell
All is kept in memory
dream of life and history.
Memory awakes to injure
the sleeping peoples
that don't let it live
free like the wind
The disappeared that we look for
with the color of their births,
hunger and abundance that come together
misstreatment with its bad memories.
All is nailed into memory,
thorn of life and history.
Two thousand would eat for a year
with what a military minute costs.
How many would stop being slaves
for the price of a bomb thrown to the sea.
All is kept in memory
dream of life and history.
Memory stabs until it bleeds
the peoples that tie it
and don't let it go
free like the wind.
All the dead of the AMIA
and those of the Israeli Embassy
the secret power of weapons
a justice system which looks and doesn't see.
It's all hidden in memory
refuge of life and history
It was when churches went silent
it was when soccer ate everything
that the Palotin fathers and Angelelli
left their blood in the mud.
It's all hidden in memory
refuge of life and history
Memory blows up until it defeats
the peoples that trample on it
and that don't let it be
free like the wind
The bullet to Chico Méndez in Brasil,
150,000 Guatemalans
the miners that face the rifles
student repression in Mexico
It's all charged into memory
weapon of life and history
America with destroyed souls
children killed by the squads
Mugica's torture for the slumbs
the dignity of Rodolfo Walsh.
América con almas destruidas,
los chicos que mata el escuadrón,
suplicio de Mugica por las villas,
dignidad de Rodolfo Walsh
It's all charged into memory
weapon of life and history
Memory aims until killing
the peoples that silence it
and don't let it fly
free like the wind