So we are walking through the cloisters of the San Diego Convent in Cartagena de Indias and we hear this Gregorian chant that captivates us. (It could be in any Caribbean colonial city.) We know it well, especially those of us that are Catholics. Then we hear a strange prayer or is it a form of seduction? We love his voice but we fear his presence. He is a saint and he is supposed to protect us. Or is he a demon? The reader, the listener, the spectator is suddenly trapped by this haunting voice that buries you in the present and kills you in the past. Was it William Faulkner who said your past will always be your present and your present will always be your past? In San Hediondo Sal que Daña Carlos Manuel Rivera does it again. He throws us into the past, reinvents the present and haunts us into the future. We know very well these characters of the past. They are the historic figures full of pain, agony and hatred. The corrupted seduction of pedophilia is invading our soul with venom. How do we escape from its entrapment? Liberation is in the word itself. The awareness of this evil will liberate you. The title itself is announcing the antivenin: saint repulsive come out because you harm (San Hediondo sal que Daña). Let us confront the evils of the past and maybe, just maybe, Faulkner might have been wrong.
Benito Pastoriza Iyodo
Benito Pastoriza Iyodo
