The Right to Dream

I had big plans for this post.  I was going to talk about how I’m done with standardized testing forever, or how hiking (and really just getting out of MIT for a while) is wonderful, or how I spent stupid amounts of time in lab this week, or how I completely killed my presentation (in a good way).  This was going to be an action packed post.  But it came time to write it all down, and I found that I didn’t really feel like writing any of those things.  There are a lot of things I’m writing this week- I’m drafting the Results section of my ‘thesis’ (in quotes because it’s a culminating paper, but not technically a thesis), and I really, really need to get a draft of my Statement of Purpose down.  So when it came time to write about myself (again) I wasn’t really keen on the idea. 

While I was procrastinating, I decided to do my Spanish homework.  This week, we’re going to be discussing a piece of writing by Eduardo Galeano, an Uruguayan journalist and writer.  The piece is an excerpt from a larger work, and it’s titled “El Derecho de Soñar”, or “The Right to Dream”.  I really don’t feel like putting my own words down on paper right now, so instead, I’m going to give you some of my Spanish homework.  I’ll copy the Spanish below (because works should be read in their original language, if possible) and then I’ll translate it, which is a portion of my homework for the week (but you should probably read a professional translation also, if possible, because I’m not great at translations (There's also a video here of the author reading the piece, if you'd like to listen to it in Spanish)).  I’m not sure how I feel about the entire piece, but parts definitely resonated with me.  There are some very powerful things that Galeano says, even if they are mildly controversial.  And honestly, art should be a little bit controversial.  There’s a great quote by Cesar Cruz that says, “Art should comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable”.  So, without further ado, here’s a dose of comfort or disturbance for your week:

El Derecho de Soñar

Eduardo Galeano

(Patas arriba: la escuela del mundo al revés, 1998)

Vaya uno a saber cómo será el mundo más allá del años dos mil. Tenemos una única certeza si todavía estamos aquí, ya seremos gente del siglo pasado y, peor todavía, seremos gente del pasado milenio.

Pero aunque no podemos adivinar el mundo que será, bien podemos imaginar el que queremos que sea.

El derecho de soñar no figura entre los 30 derechos humanos que las Naciones Unidas proclamaron a fines del 1948, pero si no fuera por él, el derecho de soñar, y por las aguas que da de beber, los demás derechos se morirían de sed. Así que vamos a delirar, deliremos por un ratito.

El mundo que está patas arriba se pondrá sobre sus pies.

En las calles, los automóviles serán pisados por los perros.

El aire estará limpio de los venenos de las máquinas y no tendrá más contaminación que la que emana de los miedos humanos y de las humanas pasiones;

La gente no será manejada por el automóvil, ni será programada por la computadora, ni será comprada por el supermercado, ni será contemplada por el televisor;

El televisor dejará de ser el miembro más importante de la familia, y será tratado como la plancha o el lavarropas;

La gente trabajará para vivir, en lugar de vivir para trabajar;

En ningún país irán presos los muchachos que se nieguen a hacer el servicio militar, sino los que quieran hacerlo;

Los economistas no llamarán nivel de vida al nivel de consumo, ni llamarán calidad de vida a la cantidad de cosas;

Los cocineros no creerán que a las langostas les encanta que las hiervan vivas;

Los historiadores no creerán que a los países les encanta ser invadidos;

Los políticos no creerán que a los pobres les encanta comer promesas;

El mundo ya no estará en guerra contra los pobres, sino contra la pobreza, y la industria militar no tendrá más remedio que declararse en quiebra por siempre jamás;

Nadie morirá de hambre, porque nadie morirá de indigestión;

Los niños de la calle no serán tratados como si fueran basura, porque no habrá niños de la calle;

Los niños ricos no serán tratados como si fueran dinero, porque no habrá niños ricos;

La educación no será el privilegio de quienes puedan pagarla; ni la policía será la maldición de quienes no puedan comprarla;

La justicia y la libertad, hermanas siamesas condenadas a vivir separadas, volverán a juntarse, bien pegaditas, espalda contra espalda;

Una mujer, negra, será presidente de Brasil y otra mujer, negra, será presidente de los Estados Unidos de América; y una mujer india gobernará Guatemala y otra, Perú;

En Argentina, las locas de Plaza de Mayo serán un ejemplo de salud mental, porque ellas se negaron a olvidar en los tiempos de la amnesia obligatoria;

La Santa Madre Iglesia corregirá algunas erratas de las piedras de Moisés. El sexto mandamiento ordenará: "Festejarás el cuerpo".

El noveno, que desconfía del deseo, lo declarará sagrado.

La Iglesia también dictará un undécimo mandamiento, que se le había olvidado al Señor:

"Amarás a la naturaleza, de la que formas parte".

Todos los penitentes serán celebrantes, y no habrá noche que no sea vivida como si fuera la última, ni día que no sea vivido como si fuera el primero.”

The Right to Dream

Eduardo Galeano

(Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World, 1998) 

One may want to know what the world will be like after the year two thousand.  The only thing we know for certain is that if we are here, we will then be people of the past century, and worse still, people of the past millennium.

But even though we can’t know what the world will be like, we can imagine well what we want it to be like.

The right to dream didn’t feature among the 30 human rights that the United Nations declared at the end of 1948, but if it weren’t for this, the right to dream, and for the water that it gives them to drink, the other rights would have died of thirst.  So if we’re going to dream, let’s dream for a bit.

The world that is upside down will be above its feet.

In the streets, the cars will be crushed by dogs.

The air will be clean of the poisons of the machines, and it will not have the contamination that emanates from the fears of humans and from human passions;

People won’t be driven by automobile, nor will they be programmed by computers, nor will they be bought in the supermarket, nor will they be watched by the television set;

The television will be cease to be the most important member of the family, and will be treated like the iron or the washing machine;

People will work to live, rather than living to work;

In no country will those who refuse military service be forced to do so, unless they want to do it;

The economists will not refer to the standard of life as the standard of consumption, nor will they refer to quality of life by quantity of goods;

The cooks will not believe that the lobsters enjoy being boiled alive;

The historians will not believe that countries enjoy being invaded;

The politicians won’t believe that the poor enjoy eating promises;

The world will finally not be at war against the poor, but rather against poverty, and the military industry will never again need to have a remedy for declaring bankruptcy;

No one will die of hunger, because no one will die of indigestion;

The children in the street won’t be treated as if they were trash, because there will not be children in the street;

The rich children will not be treated as if they were money, because there will be no rich children;

Education will not be a privilege of those who can pay for it; nor will the police be a curse for those who cannot buy them;

Justice and liberty, Siamese twins condemned to live separately, will be together again, stuck together, back to back;

A woman, black, will be the president of Brasil, and another woman, black, will be the president of the United States of America; and an indigenous woman will govern Guatemala, and another, Peru;

In Argentina, the crazy ones of the Plaza de Mayo will be an example of mental health, because they will refuse to be forgotten in times of compulsory amnesia;

The Holy Mother Church will correct some of the errors on Moses’ stones.  The sixth commandment will order: “Celebrate your body”.

The Ninth, which declares desire untrustworthy, will celebrate it.

The Church will also declare an eleventh commandment, for those who have forgotten the Father: “Love the natural world, of which you are a part”.

All of the penitents will be celebrated, and there will not be a night that is lived like it is not the last, nor a day that is lived as if it were the first.