Translator: sofia Arango
Reviewer: Ilse S. Úziel How are you? Good evening. Welcome everyone. I want to share with you
some of my experience, that in my work has led me to know a lot of people and make
me close to a lot of associations, different organizations, social groups, each of them with their struggles,
with their concerns, with their sorrows. In that way I've become
more aware of them. I feel very fortunate for it. So up until now, this moment
I've reached the conclusion, that doesn't mean it won't
change in the future. But until now I think that all fights are the same fight. It is a joyful struggle, a loving struggle. It is a fight that comes down
from the head to the heart. Just like my hair-do. There, in our chest, a fire ignites. A fire burns. In fact, it has been lit since forever, waiting for us, looking out for us. Huehuetl it was called by the old Mexicans the most ancient. There it is, he is asking us to gather together, to sit in a circle around him. To listen to the grandfather,
his words, his wise words. In silence. With respect. There I listen, I listen to mommy saying, with her sweet voice: "Is it just a dream?" I wake up! I have to make money, I have to get working. I try to remember my dream,
but by that moment, it's already late, my haste
to organize my day with everything that I've
got to do, wins over. The dream, the dream vanished. I'm so tired that I can't even get up 10 minutes earlier to calm my mind. Focus on my breathing, and connecting with that fire. Or at least, give a little review
through my relationships, through my affections, thanking them,
praying for them and for the situations
that need to be solved. No, not the ones from work:
those of my life, and the life of those surrounding me, but I rather use energy on work situations and I'm already running
because it's getting late. At last I take strength
to enter the world, I walk to the bathroom,
I pee, and take a dump. Sometimes, when I have time, I ask
that together with my feces, my fears, my resentments,
my anger and all my filth go away, but today it's not the day. I'm in a hurry, so
I wipe myself and flush, the water goes, taking everything with it, I take a shower, shampoo, rinse, soap, the water still runs. I wash my teeth, toothpaste with fluorine. Water keeps running, a lot of deodorant, so I don't smell like myself,
because people doesn't like it. But I do, if I'm being honest. I have breakfast, there's no time to
squeeze some oranges, much less to cook, so
a slice of bread will do, with ham and jam, boxed milk
and bottled water. My headache pills, pills for a cold, a heartburn
or for everything at once, and I go out. Today I could have gone by bike,
but I must carry stuff besides it is so late
that I'm going to go by car, and I'll drive along the huge
highway that passes above the place where once stood
the park where I played as a kid. The magnificent trees are gone. My phone has a year and a half
and it's starting to fail, the battery lowers so fast
and it's just about to run out, today that I needed to make
some calls as I drive, and I forgot to charge it
the night before. It makes me think
that maybe my phone is old and I should buy a new one. That's it, the solution is
that I need a new cellphone. This morning I didn't make love, I barely said goodbye
to my wife with a tight kiss, like those from the soap operas. We hardly looked each other
in the eyes for a microsecond, the same with my children and my pet. Once immerse in every day life
everything becomes easier. Everything is awesome!
Everything is automatic! We think less, there's more security,
we all know how to behave what to say, what to think,
what to eat, what to talk. Everything is easier. But once I'm off my job, when I go out
to my daily life and I'm alone, I'm so tired after hours on the traffic, after a job that makes no sense
because I don't know where it ends. I just have energy to get into the screen and escape from this world
with some entertaining TV show. Action, sex, sports, who cares. I skip news. It's always the same. Educational reform,
drug trafficking strikes again, politicians have no shame, economy in the brink of a new recession. The prices for basic alimentary
necessities rise again. Gas prices keep escalating,
currency keeps depreciating. Global warming, the neighbor comes
to humiliate me at my own home. Our idol, a great talent, is gone. No, what I need is a lot of entertainment because my life gets so boring when I tune this channel. I today I need so much screen action because my life absolutely
lacked any action, I need so much sex because I didn't gave
myself time to be intimate, I was scared or lazy to do so. And so days pass by. Some good, others, the more, dry like this day in which Samsara, like the Buddhist brothers call it, ran over me and shattered me. Personally I feel very fortunate because I had a close up
with the Wirrárika people, mistakenly called, Huicholes,
a village of dreamers. They have their men of knowledge, they are called Marakate, They gather and devote
their time to dream, They focus all of their attention
in their dreams because it is in dreams where all the information to solve
this other reality is found. Right there in the desert of Wirikuta, Wirrarika sacred territory, they are
now fighting against mega mining that threatens to pollute
all the environment; half-blood communities live there,
and they have dry bathrooms, with very advanced technology,
not like here in the city. Oftentimes I think in the gaze of my dog it stares at me when I scold him for
peeing or for pooping in a room. It stares at me as if saying "what about you, dude! You pee
and crap in clean water!" I remember that scientific article which
talked about how fluorine, present in tooth paste, gets trapped
in the pineal gland, the Third Eye in a lot of cultures, where the soul resides and it's
the core of spirituality. I know too of the chemicals in shampoo and in mouthwash
that take oxygen from water. And the chemicals in deodorant
that block my body, and prevent it from sweating. I know of the amount of sugar
present in those jams, and the damage that white flour does. I have read a couple of books, "Sugar
Blush" and "Grain Brain" they are good and they explain how sugar is of the worst poisons, and if today I'm reading, my friends, it's because my mind can't take it, it is true that in my youth
I abused of hard drugs: sugar and flour. (laughs) (applause) The transgenics. My bread. I have heard innumerable
discussions about transgenics where the discussion itself
is no longer about how the seed was modified, because corn, our corn, has been modified for thousands of years to tame it, so it could be
useful as food to us. No, that's not the issue,
the issue is how unethical is wanting to patent
what belongs to all of us. In the seed lies the promise
that everything is for everyone. Life can't be patented. Besides, it's threatening to our species to keep polluting water and earth with all the agro industrial chemicals
that those companies sell. And we are not even talking about the
extermination of biodiversity. My bottled water, dead, so very dead. My milk, do you know what milk is? It's a cocktail of blood, pus,
antibiotics and yes, a bit of milk, it's super
nutritious! Bon appetit! And it's also a perversion, tree times perversion and it's not like
I'm against perversions, perversions are delicious. I loved ice creams and cheeses. But here is the perversion:
first, it is not your mother, second, you are adults,
milk is for babies. And it is not even from your species. But go ahead, suckers. (laughter) My ham, I've seen videos
of the inhuman treatment that our animal brothers are subject to in those so called "farms",
all nicely painted in the outside but are industries of pain
and torture. I have this pretty anecdote, of a friend that went to visit the Mapuche natives,
in the south of the continent. A woman, before lunch,
hands him over a knife and tells him: "Please kill the goat." And my friend frozes. And the woman stares at him,
takes the knife from him, and strikes the goat's neck. And she says: "It's done, now, skin it." For a second time, my friend freezes. The woman turns around with a sigh, she cuts open the goat,
skins it, and says: "Now eviscerate it, please." Ahhh! "Give it to me!" And she says to him:
"Explain me something, you eat meat but
you don't know how to kill?" No, my friends, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to rile up the carnivores, the question goes for everyone. We eat, right? We eat, yet don't know how to sow. We eat, yet don't know how to harvest. Very good, very good. My medicines, the pharmaceutical industry, taken hostage as all the other areas
of the human knowledge and put to the service of revenues. I know that our plastic culture
and oil by products are polluting everything. I know there's an island the size of the Iberian Peninsula
in the Pacific Ocean. made purely of plastic wastes. Have you heard of micropearls? They are used in gel soaps, toothpastes that end up right into the sea,
and combine with the plankton. The city air is unbreathable
for those who are not used to it. But we are cockroaches! Yes! There are so many cars
clustered in stationary clots, farting hot gases, disgusting. My body is already tired
by the time I reach my destination after so much time
in front of the steering wheel, my brain is already highly stressed and the work day is yet to begin. My hand, ear and head too heat up while I talk on the phone. My distraction almost
made me have an accident, but today I was lucky. I've read about Tantalum and Coltan. The minerals thanks to which our computers and our smartphones can transmit, thanks to which corporations can
organize wars, where guns are given to children and the innocent become the most ruthless killers. In the news stand I get aroused
with boobs and bums, blood and guns! Yeah! I see how my children
are though useless things. The discussion on the education reform focuses more on administrative issues and in policies instead
of what's really important. Anyways, I don't really care
and I don't take part of it. Let the teacher sort themselves,
they are slackers, they say: closing streets to make demonstrations. I have heard stories from close people who disappeared, were tortured, kidnapped, or murdered by some Mafia. We are in crossed fire. I know that these changes,
reforms and new administrations. This other new political party
and that "work for the people" are just promises and lies. I know that economic recession
has never ended and never, ever have we had
fat cows times. I know perfectly well that
my purchasing power is always less, the same happens to my quality of life,
that's not the same as last year, and the year before that. All my life, 49 years, I've lived
in a chronic crisis, and it keeps getting worst, always. Weather patterns are gone, it rains acid and otherworldly
flooding occur, then everything gets so dry
it looks like a desert. The cold forces us to take cover
as if we lived in the poles, and air is filled with illnesses. Time? There's never time for anything. Somebody has time? Can you sell me some? TV is a mock to intelligence. There are edited lies or truths
to get us confused. The idea of love they depict
has more to do with attachments with fear, control and manipulation. Sport is mere business. Sex is about putting in
and pulling out, silicone and unnecessary information. There's no art, no culture, all plots
are about lawyers and policemen action that is shown,
justifies repression. Subduing methods, invasion, colonization, imperialism techniques:
That is progress! Making everything seem so cool,
with well payed actors of shapes and gestures
well defined by a scalpel. If we are not careful, internet will be
taken by the corporations and access to quality information
is only going to get harder. Yes my friends, my brothers: everything, everything is a fight. Then again, I'm very fortunate
because I have friends, I have friends who fight, today's speakers are fighting too. Doña Trini of the Atenco village,
whose relatives were incarcerated for defending their lands, Santos de la Cruz of the Wirrárika
regional counsel against mining, Yunuén of the Counsel of youths,
for defending their forests. Relatives of the disappeared
Ayotzinapa students, the mothers from Juarez. To Leonora, Ariana, Paulina, who fight for the sea cow,
for the Mexican wolf, the bulls or the elephants, the animal rights, our brothers rights. for my cousin Ileana and her partner,
that fight to be respected in a homophobic and closed society. For Tomas and Mario, Indian Yaquis,
incarcerated for defending water for Guancho, who fights against
distractions to focus on his breathing and knows the uplifting
Tantric practices of sacred sex. To Paulina who lives a secluded life, learning from a Taita
in the Ecuadorian jungle so she can prepare medicine
for her village. To uncle Alfonso, fighting
for the legislation of those traditional medicines, no, not medication,
but true medicine for us. To Giovana, who fights against fracking that new practice
to extract gas from the subsoil. Incredible polluting! It pollutes
millions of liters of water. Sandra, who fights to recycle PET. To Jacky, who fights through urban gardens so we all start doing that
and we have food, and if the economic systems fails,
well, let it fail! To Ofelia, who fights against hunger and
malnutrition of indigenous children and for all those who fight
for women rights, migrants rights, against touristic,
highway, damps mega projects. I think of the millions of years
of human trajectory, and how we are about to lose it all. Everything would start again,
but not for us. Most likely it will be another species. A Colombian taita told me: No! don't get it wrong,
mother earth is not sick, we are the sick ones. And if we don't reach
the appointment with ourselves, and no one else. If we don't take this chance, the planet will take
over a thousand years to regain balance and make a new species arise, a new attempt of awareness. Today. here, you, you, you, me, all together, we are awareness, we are that burning fire that is waiting for us. The Mapuche people have a word: "Marichiweu! that means: "we will conquer ten times." and me saying: "Marichiweu!" Ten times conquering over myself. This fight is happy, sweet,
it's delicious, it's exquisite. It tastes! It has essence, it's delicious. This fight comes down
from the head to the heart, the place were that fire burns, where that little voice tells us, tells me that all fights are one. This fight is for life. Is the ceremony of life. Is to confront and solve the depths, the mystery that waits for us. There it is: to recognize us as sacred. All of us and everything that exists. Everything we know, everything is sacred. Tomorrow when I wake up, my friends, I will pay attention and I will try
to remember my dream, the dream of each and everyone of us. The dream of humankind. Me dreaming that humans
are going to make it. Thank you very much. (applauses)
