Migrant Prayer at CCAMYN

The flowers speak... (my translation below)


To Those Who Fall in the Desert of Death:

In memory of those who look for a better life
Who only enounter death there
In memory of those who where all adventurous and all forgiving
Who lived with hope in their eyes
And challenge in his soul

The sun burns them, the desert devours them
and the dust erases their name and their image

In memory of those who will return no more
We offer these flowers
To them with respect we say:
Your thirst is our thirst
Your hunger is our hunger
Your pain is our pain
Your anguish, your bitterness and your agony
Are ours as well

We are a shout that demands justice...
So that no one, not one more will be abandoned to the land
Your beliefs, your deaths, your children, your parents, your family,
Your roots, your culture, your identity...

We are a silence that has voice
So that no one will have to look for a destiny in other lands

So that no one will have to go to the desert
And waste away in loneliness

We are a voice in the desert that cries out:
Education for all!
Opportunities for all!
Work for all!
Bread for all!
Liberty for all!
Justice for all!...

We are a voice that the desert cannot drown out
To demand that the homeland will give the same to all of our children
The opportuny of a dignified and decorated life...

"For the right to a life in peace"
Mexico, Winter of 2004
Othon Perez