I
can corroborate what constitutes reality on this planet is stranger than
fiction, for what happened to Antonio and
I, what encroached upon our lives on the bleak
dawn of September 12, 1998 was bizarre beyond my most wild imaginings.
I
will not relive the details here, now. My love and friend, author of these
verses was brutally removed from our life and thrown by the Miami contingent
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation into a United States Federal Jail under
allegations of "conspiracy to espionage" and knowingly acting as an
"unregistered agent of a foreign government" the foreign government
referred to is Cuba, country of Antonio´s language and formation years. He
has been detained there, to this day, pending trial. He persistently pleads
innocent of these charges.
As
is clear from these writings, Antonio is a man of peace, integrity and love.
He is by accounts of all who have known him, kind and generous, a man of true
humility who would eschew speaking of himself in such terms. And so, his
writings must speak for him. Antonio´s reference are to serve. He offers
these poems, as he has written in his introductory poem, "if they serve
you."
As
for me, I come to the work of translating these poems curiously. I possessed
only a rudimentary grasp of the Spanish language, yet I found this to be
breezy task , like something I was meant to do. I was driven to know, as well
as I could possibly could, what were these gifts, I received almost daily
accompanying letters and drawings nearly
printed with the tiny eraser -less pencil one might be granted to score
a game of bowling or scratch in a lottery ticket. Armed with dictionary and as
source of verb conjugations, I set out to craft translations that were poetic
in my own English language. A selection is presented here.
The
mutual language of love and love and respect for language ministered to me
that I might assist in delivering the power and music of the sincere heart and
mind of the author of these verses. In doing so, they became mine and
something might join Antonio in offering to you.
There is
not a moment, sitting here at the computer that I am not aware of the
fragility of freedom, the myth of privacy. Every correspondence that crossed
between us was reviewed by intelligence investigators, operating in a
clandestine world searching for compromising material. They received only love
and truth.
Margaret
Louise Becker
May 10,
2000
Since I
wrote this prologue and after more than two years of incarceration, Antonio
was brought to trial in a Federal Court House in Miami, together with other
Cubans who were similarly accused. Despite the absence of evidence to
substantiate the serious charges leveled against them and despite clear
evidence that his mission regarded protecting the people of Cuba from well
organized terrorist groups that operate from American soil, hampering the
peaceful relationship between our two nations, an unsequestered jury delivered
a blanket verdict of guilty. Antonio awaits sentencing. This is why, now more
than ever, it is necessary that this book come to light, in order that the
world may know the profoundly ethical and spiritual values that motivate
Antonio´s life and work.
