Guernica

Donate
  • Home
  • Fiction
  • Essay
  • Poetry
  • Interviews
  • Apostrophe
  • Back Draft
  • Spotlights
  • Cutting Room
Explore… Search
Search for:
Fiction Essay Poetry Interviews Apostrophe Back Draft Spotlights Cutting Room

Ileya

By Adedayo Agarau

There are nights that escape

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call

This is war

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call

Death’s night won’t come gently

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call

Irma Pineda

Irma Pineda is among the most prominent Indigenous-language poets of the Americas, as well as a leading activist on human rights issues. She is the author of ten bilingual Didxazá-Spanish books of poetry, three books of poetry in Spanish, and three trilingual books in Wendy Call’s English translation, Stolen Flower, Nostalgia Doesn't Flow Away Like Riverwater, In the Belly of Night and Other Poems. Her poems are widely anthologized and have also been translated into Estonian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Serbian. She writes a biweekly newsmagazine column for national Mexican newspaper La Jornada and was the first woman to serve as president of Mexico’s National Organization of Writers in Indigenous Languages (ELIAC). From 2020 through 2022 Pineda served as one of two representatives of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and she is currently a legislator in the Oaxacan State Congress. A long-time professor at the National Teachers University in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Pineda is also a member of Mexico’s National Academy for Artists and Creators (SNCA). She lives in her hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.
Poetry

There are nights that escape

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call June 17, 2025
There are nights so long / so very long / they could form rivers of tears
Poetry

This is war

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call June 17, 2025
so all the birds would flee
Poetry

Death’s night won’t come gently

By Irma Pineda, translated by Wendy Call June 17, 2025
you will hear my ancestors’ voices / piercing your peace
Donate
About Contact Shop Submissions Events Advertise

Guernica

Guernica is a non-profit magazine dedicated to global art and politics, published online since 2004. With contributors from every continent and at every stage of their careers, we are a home for singular voices, incisive ideas, and critical questions.

© 2004-2025 Guernica. All Rights Reserved.

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .

Guernica
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.