‘Those Seventy-Two Bodies Belong to Us’
— Andrew Sargus Klein
Donald Trump continues to push an agenda of white supremacy. Some days that agenda is less subtle than others, but it continues all the same. Today marks a particularly cruel and unjust (though no less unsurprising) move on his part, specifically in regard to immigration.
Today is also the day that Roy G. Guzmán’s poem ‘Those Seventy-Two Bodies Belong to Us’ went live at Poetry and the timing couldn’t be more heartbreakingly appropriate. The poem references the San Fernando massacre, and in a Facebook post, Guzmán writes:
As the living, we cannot forget those who've died for us to be here. The violence that happens at the U.S./Mexican border affects people from other countries as well, people who themselves are running from political and social chaos in their own countries.
The ripple effects of violence are always in motion, a tide that flows and never seems to ebb. Recognizing, naming, remembering, and honoring the dead is but a first step, and a forever necessary one.