Otomí de la comunidad de Santiago Mexquititlàn, Municipio de Amealco Querétaro

La Ciudad de México es históricamente sísmica | Otomí de la comunidad de Santiago Mexquititlàn

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!

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I hear my ancestor's native tongue
for the first time, 
my eyes swell an ocean of history
of swallowed tongues & collapsed lungs:
Colonial ships landing ashore, 
craving gold, craving blood, craving ichor.

A story decaying in memory, 
a collapsing skull 
speaking through rotting teeth.

hearing this erased gospel, 
my body remembers forgotten lullabies.

…

Body knows this language 
was butchered to near extinction 
Who’d hunt a tongue in pieces, 
who’d labor a decolonized expedition for every puzzle piece?

As a child I was fascinated 
by veins beneath my tongue: 
like roots searching for surviving language
to overgrowth every colonizer’s lexicon.

____

1. English felt like prickly syllables, micro-tongue-cuts, 
reason why I break its colonized rules
2. Spanish felt more like answer but 
it was colonizer’s false gilded god, and
3. I'm aware of 1 and 2 every time my family encourages either language.

A dentist told me I was tonguetied so I stretched out my tongue;

Or rather I 
started expanding my roots
started studying the blood evaporated by history
We didn’t forget this tongue, 
it was yanked from the root, 
thieved from the hollows of our throats.

I was born mestizo, a molcajete 
mortar and pestle of Spanish and Otomí
born both colonizer and colonized in my DNA

born warzone of blood and jaw and genocide 
and throat and erasure and tongue 

born warzone of blood and jaw and genocide 
and throat and erasure and tongue 

______

I relearned my ancestral people, Otomí 
was just another colonizer’s nickname.

their true names:
Hñahñu! and Ñuhu!

Sound like poems encapsulated in a single word, 
Like seed with entire ecosystem inside awaiting unlocking

300,000 souls strong
Tongue rare except in 
my grandmother’s mouth memory
my grandmother’s mouth memory


I learned through a screen and not 
linking hands or exchanging eyes or 
dancing tongues in communal tandem of meal and song

But these words are seedlings,
 germinating spark-growths
still learning this tongue 
and its genocidal history of derooting

____

Maybe, maybe, maybe
I can plant new cornucopias 
in the wasteland hollow of my jaw

Even if those who cultivated seeds before me still struggle today 
to remember the history pruned from their bleeding intergenerational mouths

NATIVE TONGUE

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NATIVE TONGUE ( Hnahnu / Otomi ) - Indigenous People's Day

Baby don’t hurt me
Come catch me 
As I’m falling 
So baby don’t hurt me
I know that 
I’m learning
Eyezz Redd only wanna see you 
Said you hurt babygirl me too
Eyezz redd only when I see you
Said you hurt babygirl me too

I never had nobody ever pull thru
I wake up everyday like what I’m goin do?
Cuz I can’t tell nobody what I’m goin thru
Shoutout my brothas they know bout the struggle too
I used to think that ppl care but now I know
That people only care about you when you gone
Its funny cuz I never thought I’d ever live this long
The drugs what made me happy time to move on
They ain’t never thought that I would make it this far
I remember they was laughing 
I remember shit was hard 
I remember I was doubting myself even from the start 
Shout out my ex for being the first person to ever break my heart

eyezzredd (death) [ALL PLATS LINK IN BIO]

Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas. Guion: María Félix Quezada Ramírez, Voz en hñahñu (otomí): Leticia López Cruz, Voz en español: Sergio Miranda Rodríguez, Música: Diego Mendoza Jiménez,  Portada: Nancy Durán Luna. Coordinación y edición: Norberto Zamora Pérez. México, 2024.

Palabras vinculadas a la migración otomí a Estados Unidos.

Palabras que decimos para nombrar los trabajos que se realizan allá. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras que se dicen para nombrar las uniones. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras para nombrar el dinero que ganan quienes radican allá. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras que utilizamos con nuestros familiares ausentes. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras para nombrar los sentimientos de aquellos que no migraron. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras que indican el proceso hacia el destino. (hñahñu-español)

Palabras para señalar conceptos básicos de la migración. (hñahñu-español)

Yä noya di mahñu̱ nubꞋu̱ di benihu̱ nuꞋu̱ ya jai xä ma ri NꞋandi Ma Huifi. (hñahñu)

Palabras vinculadas a la migración

Palabras que decimos cuando pensamos en las personas migrantes a los Estados Unidos. (español)

Don’t wanna see your face
Don’t wanna hear your name
Cuz it jus being me pain
And I did it all in vain 
Used to make my day
Made you say my name 
When I gave it to you yeah
In my head it would replay
I can’t sleep I stay awake
I’m addicted to the pain
And I wish i could escape
But I know that is too late
Honestly…
I’m good without you 
But I cannot see
Anyone round me yeah is so empty
So empty
What goes around goes around 
And around and around 
Yeah u got what u wanted and u left me out to drown
Guess I let my guard down

pain freestyle (death x jack zorana)

Poem: ¿Nde Gra Bui Ngu Di Ne?
Traducción y recitación en Otomí|Hñähñu por Margarita León
Written by Amy Shimshon-Santo

Margarita León es poeta y traductora otomí/hñähñu- español, ha publicado poesía en diversas antologías, revistas y suplementos culturales en México y en el extranjero. Su último poemario Ya pa otho ya xudi (El tiempo sin sombra) es parte de la colección Miguel León-Portilla de la editorial de la Universidad de Guadalajara UDG. Forma parte del cuerpo docente del Programa México Nación Multicultural de la UNAM; impartiendo el tema: Mujeres indigenas. Parte de su obra poética se ha traducido al francés, al inglés y al griego. Desde el 2022 pertenece al Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, SNCA.

Contacto:
Facebook/Margarita León
hyatsiml@gmail.com

This poem appears in Random Experiments in Bioluminescence by Amy Shimshon-Santo, published by Flowersong Press (2024). 
Dr. Amy Shimshon-Santo is a poet who cultivates inclusive cultural ecologies for planetary justice. www.amyshimshon.com

¿Nde Gra Bui Ngu Di Ne?

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Dr. Amy Shimshon-Santo is a writer, teacher, and culture maker who believes that creativity is a powerful tool for personal and social transformation. She cultivates inclusive cultural ecologies for planetary justice. / www.amyshimshon.com / @shimshona

El Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (INPI) es la autoridad del Poder Ejecutivo Federal de México, que promueve el reconocimiento y derechos de los pueblos indígenas y afromexicano.

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