- “Cristo destruyendo su cruz”/”Christ destroying his cross” (1943) By José Clemente Orozco
I had pardon and capitulation
in Soto, and my baggage they stolen,
and for bringing me with chains they ruined
my arm. From there I went to the Inquisition.
With no other cause than condition
of the government, three years locked me up,
and to this jail they finally moved me
with the same lack of communication.
Did the Inquisition cease? No, it ceases the place,
the name was changed with the building:
is today General Captaincy
what used to be called the Holy Office.
With the Constitution everything is the same,
the name was changed, despotism follows.
Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, “Soneto” In: Emilio Carrilla (comp.), Poesía de la Independencia, Venezuela, Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1979, p. 152
Fray Servando Teresa de Mier was brother of the Dominicus order. He was blamed of blasphemy and heregy because of a speech in front of clerical autorithies of the Nueva España (Mexico during the colony). His speech denied the heritage of Spain in México. He claimed that the Virgen of Guadalupe (mexican goddess) existed already under the form of Tonatzin, an ancient mother god of the mexica culture. Therefore, for him in America there was already christianism . He was jailed and escaped several times even in the exile. He wrote encouraging the independent movements in America during his exile.
Postcolonial Poetry Project 