Tai Nass A Revolution

“Sunset on Inishmore” by Denise Labadie

A Revolution

By Tai Nass

Let me tell you a story about a revolution. The revolution brought me here to this cell.

When they shoved me into my new home of rock and blood and excrement it was not my own but now my blood stains these monolithsof entrapment. I have taken each brick apart one by one in my mind and contemplated my pristine country, The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes. In

the

vista from my window I can almost make out the view of Isla Ometepe over the vast waters of Lake Nicaragua. Instead of despair, I am rapturous, proud to be a Sandinista.

Like all revolutions, thoughts turn to whispers, whispers to plans and plans transform into action. Those actions change paradigms. All revolutions or risings as I call them now, are massive transformations. A shift was happening, and my people, the Nicaraguenses, were rising. This shift comes from a deep place in human existence where consciousness is awakened into the light of knowing. Knowing that we, all creatures on this planet and beyond, have a right to be here with hope and dignity as livelihood. When hope is taken away, the human senses come alive to search for it. And that is what happened. As I watched my people starve and languish in sickness, I put one hand on my loved ones for solace and one fist in the

air. I turned to look at my people and there were constellations of fists in the air, like the ones that flicker out my cell window.

A family of our own people had stolen our humanity. A dynasty of Somozan men took the rights of my parents and their parents and their parents before them. These men that robbed us of dignity and peace did so for ego. Egos so large that they blindly destroyed the sacred that birthed them, nurtured them and gave them air to savor. Mama Nicaragua disintegrated under their wake and many died. These monsters decided politics and money was the ideal to stand for and Mama Nicaragua was no longer peaceful. She was pregnant with anger. When the earthquake cracked a chasm in our Land ofLakes and Volcanoes it shook us awake to see how dishonorable our existence had become. And when they diverted the supplies that were meant to save us in the agony, they sent it to their friends.

I said to my people this is the last injustice we willendure and I kept one fist raised in the air and the other grabbed for a gun. One by one we rose, children, mothers, grandmothers, warriors, grasped their machetes, their babies and they fought. Somehow in the starvation and exhaustion we found a new place of energy inside, a purpose built in freedom. When they took me, my giant gaze looked down on a Somoza and he cowered. I failed, but our mission did not and I see it in the defeated demeanor of my captors.

So, contemplation and silence have brought me back to rest. The hatred has turned to understanding. You see, we are all here to care for our families. We are all here to feel the profound love that having the blood of our ancestors, and those that come after, give. It is sacred and runs deep into the roots of our countries. Donot forget it and when you are lost, it will ground you. The womb of Mama Nicaragua has nurtured me in a cocoon and now I have metamorphosed. Near my window, stabilized by the cool rocks, I ground myself, lift my arms and fly.