Mauro Cardenas - The Revolutionaries Try Again

the Flying Dumbos the Teacups the

mi chiquitolina

Hey you okay? — Leave me alone — Who does this revolera think she’s talking to? — Block her way Alfonso — Good evening why are you carrying a hammer so late at night isn’t that suspicious? — So I can hammer these posters onto your ugly faces — Ha ha those posters are for Cristian Cordero’s new nightclub — Get away from me — Take her hammer and posters she’s fired — Who made Juan Luis the leader? — I’m the one buying you morons drinks — I don’t think Cristian will approve of you firing his servants — I’m sure she massages him on the side better watch it — Don’t touch me get away from me — Putadeverga come here — Hey don’t punch her so hard what if — The Maraco in love — Wow that’s probably enough Maraco — Maraco is so Maraco he likes to kick women while they’re down — Who doesn’t? — Is she dead? — No more Chivas for Maraco — You’re still a gaywad Maraco — Let’s get out of here — Don’t rush me I don’t want to waste my cigar my grandfather gets these from León — Did you know Julio’s cousin was wasted as usual one night and ran over some lowlife with his van? — What was his name? — Who cares? — Julio’s cousin was at Cristian’s party last week he looked fine to me — Turns out the lowlife on the motorcycle was the son of a military guy so Julio’s cousin had to go into hiding until they could bribe the captain to

(how many ribs does the lord

the motion sickness on the bus to Quito

children selling corn on the cob

a feisty heretic type look

— What are these horrible people doing on Victor Emilio Estrada anyway

the serpentine road on our way up to

— Call the bouncer at Opera this trash here’s blocking the sidewalk

the bus driver slowing down because of the fog and holding

his lighter in front of the windshield

Quito Light of America

why did you listen to the radio from the other room Mama?

quiet down children

riot tanks surrounding the Plaza Mayor

reading about Luz Elena the mother of the brothers Restrepo and how in her desperation to find her sons she had consulted soothsayers

the fourth anniversary of the Restrepo’s disappearance

if the candle is still lit tomorrow morning your sons are still alive

don’t make a nuisance of yourself President Sixto Duran Ballen says to the young Restrepo sister after she asked him about her brothers

policemen with plastic shields barricading the Plaza Mayor

the fifth anniversary of Arsenio’s disappearance

corn grains sliding up and down the floor whenever the bus driver speeds up or

I have orders to shoot if I want to

Han Solo inside a wall of lava

Nosotros / que nos queremos tanto / que desde que nos

policemen armed with tear gas launchers

I haven’t come here to recite you poetry me gustas cuando callas / porque estás como

children climbing on the bus and selling corn on the

I haven’t come here to serenade you

Agent Chocolate ha ha

trained Dobermans

Eva’s mother sending her to her aunt’s house by the Salado the week after her brother

two hundred policemen barricading the

untying a canoe on the Salado and searching for her brother

the seams of the goat brown bus on our way to

Luz Elena visiting the hut of an indigenous clairvoyant who filled a pearl shell with aguardiente and said he saw the boys alive and crossing the border

the branch of a palm tree floating on the Salado like a gnarled hand

— Out of the way she needs help someone

let me through I’m here to bring Doña Restrepo her medicine

my aunt standing on the makeshift port by the Salado desperately waving her hands don’t reprimand our Eva please

— Call an ambulance you

please don’t send me away again Mama

trucutus

mi chiquitolina

children selling ciruelas

a bloated liter bottle with a trickle of spiders floating on the

mothers of the Plaza Mayor

a secret meeting between the police chief and the minister of the interior to decide what to do with the Restrepo brother who hadn’t died

— We can’t let this woman in the hospital she doesn’t have an ID

my mother had brought her own sign

shoot him

it said simply:

you’ll feel less sick if you stick your head out the window Eva

For Our Children Until Life

the wind on my face

Arsenio Marcos Calderón

waterfalls on every corner on our way to

a sign with the lying newspaper headline There Was a Traffic Accident Involved in the Restrepo Case

— What are you doing with that woman bring her back into the hospital

the patches of jungle on our way to

the headline splattered with red paint

Quito light of

Marranito Poco Rabo? Yes? Hi. Hello. Where to? Across the cathedral. The fire thrower’s under the rock.

I have come to tell you that I love you Eva

a drawing on the newspaper of the Yambo lagoon where the dead bodies of the brothers Restrepo were never to be found

— I’m sorry doctor we didn’t know that you knew her we

Policemen dragging Luz Elena away

a stick figure with fins an oxygen tank inside the Yambo

Eva’s mother approaching Luz Elena at the Plaza Mayor

sneaking inside her mother’s room and sleeping by the foot of

Eva’s mother sharing with Luz Elena a photograph of Arsenio

Agent Moran the policewoman in charge of investigating the brothers Restrepo’s disappearance inventing an informant who knew where the brothers Restrepo were

Eva’s mother didn’t speak

President Sixto Duran Ballen’s daughter saying to Luz Elena that instead of protesting at the Plaza Mayor they should play the classical music her father likes

Luz Elena didn’t speak

— Page Doctor Rodriguez the anesthesiologist not the heart surgeon

Luz Elena holding my mother’s hand

Agent Moran asking the Restrepo family for money taking more than sixty trips across the country to track invented leads

Luz Elena and my mother embracing

— She’s waking up that’s good let her rest for a while)

does Rolando think that I’m his

clanging the metal telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada with her hammer and listening in for

what were you listening in for?

the submarines Mama — posters slimed atop posters — the rusted staples like robot ants swarming the surface of the telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada — my Aunt Felicia had a French poodle named Felicia that followed her everywhere — Jaime Roldós Aguilera slimed atop Jaime Nebot Saadi — not like submarines like sonars in movies about radioactive submarines — the manta rays in the Yambo — Radio Río y Mar — the scuba divers gliding along giant fishes with names she didn’t know — there’s a salmon in your lagoon ma’am — and whenever Felicia was calm she would doze by her feet — whenever I would smear flour on my face I would think of you Arsenio — El Loco Bucaram slimed atop of El Loco Bucaram — if I hadn’t been holding these posters in my hand I would have been embarrassed to have been seen staring at the posters on the telephone poles along Victor Emilio Estrada Rolando — look at that scarecrow she has nothing better to do than ogle at telephone poles — La Sonora Dinamita slimed atop Assad Bucaram — pouring sacks of flour and cement in the Yambo so no one else would be thrown in there anymore — the wooden handle of my brother’s favorite hammer worn out by his millions of clutchings — what did those hands look like then? — beware of splinters Arsno — I’m not building your hamster a house or wheel or nothing Evarista — a diving plank? — and whenever Felicia wasn’t calm she would bark at everything — Radio Romance — no barking at the chairs Felicia — giant chairs tilting atop Felicia — I didn’t come here to stencil your eyebrows Eva — white walls white roofs white vistas of nothing — climbing the walls of a tower that’s also a skyscraper that’s rising up to the clouds — everybody speaks in tongues because without a tongue who can speak eh? — ugh — let’s inflate your pamphlets with ketchup and hurl them at the — what was inside your purse Aunt Felicia? — who wants ketchup for dinner? — ewww — forgive me tomatoes — don’t eat me please eat the potatoes instead — forgive me potatoes — whenever it was dark Felicia would power the headlight on her forehead — my dog has mining experience how about yours? — what’s this we have us a caller folks — hello? — hi I would like to dedicate a — what’s your name Son? — my name’s Rolando I would like to dedicate With You at a Distance to Eva Calderón — is Eva your sweetheart? — I wouldn’t call her that yes she’s my are we on the air? — we’re always on the air but no one listens — Doña Leonor? — call me Aurorora — Leonor’s trying to be funny here’s a laugh track for you — I can’t hear anything — Aurora La Deaf — do you think your Eva’s listening? — I hope so — even if she isn’t listening she is listening right? — nothing consoles me / if you aren’t here with me — in the news today a cadre of scientists has gathered around a lamppost on Victor Emilio Estrada — Radio Nada de Nada — what’s your request? — the song about the red robins who sing about the red robins who — so many songs here can you hear all the radios along Victor Emilio Estrada? — in recent declarations scientists have concluded the lamppost on Victor Emilio Estrada isn’t switching on and off at random yes thank you for the opportunity at first we thought it was Morse code which didn’t make any sense so then we thought it was some kind of Indian signal which didn’t make any sense either so then we connected electrodes to the base of the lamp and concluded the lamp wasn’t asking for help because what’s the use of asking for help right? — You found me — We drove all over and then we — I knew you would find me and then I thought how melodramatic my thoughts — Don’t melodramatize yourself Auroris — Don’t make me laugh these exhalations hurt me — Rolando talking to Eva and Eva trying to calm him as much as he’s trying to calm her connecting electrodes to Eva Calderón’s head and — Did Eva just fall asleep? — Mom? — yes? — I thought it was you what are you doing on Victor Emilio Estrada? — I’m sorry I didn’t have more change to give you please forgive me I’ll give you everything I have — the houses and rivers — how are we to be anything in a world of — Radio Los Peces — constellations with names we didn’t — and one day the dead will rise against the