Poetry
Cavadini, John
John Cavadini Rio Grande When you cross the bridge They stop you and open up your Bags. They are looking for statues Of Jesus bleeding. For these they Will look in your pockets and...
...He doesn't want to worry them or to let the Shining Path know that he has been talking about their threats...
...Similarly, D when poor Mexicans~0 million of them, near_9 ly half the population--speak of the impact of government on their lives, they use dozens of metaphoric synonyms...
...But he cannot sleep at night when he hears the neighborhood dogs barking...
...At first the PRI claimed all six, but in one case the PRI candidate gave up his office in unprecedented deference to well-founded claims of vote fraud...
...He has reviewed old parish records...
...For nearly a year now, Gianni has moved from one place to another every week or so...
...I don't understand it...
...But Gianni is plagued by doubt...
...Centerpiece of the antipoverty initiative is the National Solidarity Program (PRONASOL), commonly known as "Solidarity," which Salinas launched on taking office late in 612: Commonweal...
...Among the politer terms in an often vulgar lexicon are perdidos (lost), olvidados (forgotten), and manipulados (manipulated...
...charges typical of the Shining Path, but which none of his many friends would support...
...Father Vincent Gianni--not his real name---is not yet a victim...
...In his former parish in an exceptionally poor region south of Lima he was very popular--parishioners celebrated his birthday every year with the kind of fervor Peruvians show only for the most beloved...
...Whether out of political shrewdness or social vision, or both, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari wants to change this state of affairs...
...Tom Vogel, Jr...
...The fear is that the Shining Path will be able to drive out the missionaries for good...
...On this side of the bridge Jesus is not allowed to bleed...
...My life and my friends are here now...
...Except for this instance and one other, observers generally consider the election the cleanest in Mexico's history...
...he thinks that staying longer will make him an easier target...
...When he visits his former home in Europe, he finds he has less and less to say to the friends he knew before coming to Peru...
...One more shot and there will be a stampede [of foreign missionaries] out of here," said Gianni...
...MEXICO'S NEW POLITICS BUILDING SEWERS, REAPING VOTES _9 ecause the corn pancake we know as the tortilla D is so important to them, Mexicans have some '~ twenty separate words to identify it...
...It has been thought Unnecessary, And therefore all His wounds Have been plugged up...
...These are people who lack adequate housing and health care, finish only a couple of grades of school, and often enough go to bed at night still hungry...
...The anonymous callers and letter-writers have accused Gianni of consorting with the rich, being insensitive to the poor in his community, taking for himself donations intended for the poor, of being an imperialist...
...There are special Dogs...
...He has tried to find some flaw, something to explain how anyone could hate him enough to want to kill him...
...But there may be no safe haven...
...Many of his friends don't even know that he has been threatened...
...and Canada, he has launched a local war on poverty aimed, he says, at uplifting Mexico's downtrodden and disillusioned...
...Even as he champions a free trade agreement with the U.S...
...is a free-lance journalist who has just returned from a three-year stay in Peru...
...Some missionaries in the Chimbote diocese have asked to be transferred to somewhere safer...
...With ample justification, they are skeptical--to speak mildly----of politicians...
...For these they Will look in your pockets and even Scrutinize your underarms and Hold your packaged underwear to lights...
...He is currently a graduate student at the Columbia University School of Journalism...
...This is my home...
...I have been told to leave the country or be killed...
...Gianni has worked in Peru as a missionary for more than twenty years...
...Politically, the effort paid rich electoral dividends as Salinas's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) maintained its dominance of the Congress in the August 18 national elections while capturing five of the six governorships that were up for grabs...
...The Green fiver can flow If something must flow, But we say, Bleed there-Where it smells more, and All flesh can see it together, In the street where all flesh is...
...I can't leave," he says...
...There is so much hate in the phone calls and letters," he says...
...He doesn't want to be one of them...
...Missionary groups all over Peru have been receiving more threats than ever before...
...They talk more there, anyway, And so will overlook some slight Incontinence Of blood-of threats and killings...
...After months of death threats, the barking may be an alarm signal: the Shining Path have finally come for him...
...TOM VOGEL, JR...
Vol. 118 • October 1991 • No. 18
