LA LLORONA’S SACRED WATERS

Acrylic mural on stucco, 30’ x 70’
York and 24th Streets, San Francisco Mission District
Juana Alicia ©2004

La llorona’s sacred waters

she holds us in the wing of her arm and

all we hear  at the edge of the world   is

las ranas crying    perdiendo se gana

perdiendo se gana   perdiendo se…

for our survival she throws us into the

watery vortex were we are hurled

left to swirl down to where we all

began and return again in the ancestor’s

children’s  children’s  children

sometimes

a desperate mother

must return  herself

her children

to the blue void

where the waters

are not still

nor rushing  but

a soothing place

to rock her

babies back

to the big sleep

their souls to keep

to plant them as seeds

once again

in a watery tomb

the universal womb

from where all life springs

a better place

without suffering

no longer sought in a cruel

world who cares not

about future

generations

merely wants

to use them

as tools

to rule them

for their own

motives

money or profit

we come in tiny little writhing drops

in a sea of blue darkness swimming up

a perilous canal   a life journey not to be

stopped   then a half of us must penetrate  the

luminous calabash of life

to become whole        a higher form of life

then swimming semi-conscious

in a briny stew in the curve of

our mother’s bright red womb

until we are done

then we emerge spurting and stopping

causing her much pain at the same time joy and

confusion

for that first communion nine months

earlier resulted in an us

a new flower blooming red

in a gush of sacred water flowing out

to greet the world once again

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2002

Berkeley, Califas.

Llorona with her child
Militarized Border
Chalchihuitlicue and stormy sky
 Chalchihuitlicue Torso with Xochimilco
Chalchihuitlicue's necklace
Outstreched hand of the Llorona
Bechtel fatcat falling from dam
Women in Black
Women in Black, mother of the disappeared
LA LLORONA’S SACRED WATERS,Narmada River
Confrontation in Cochabamba

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Juana Alicia painting the mountains
Juana Alicia painting the Narmada River scene
Chalchihuitlicue's feet, drawing
Chalchihuitlicue's feet in process
Finished Llorona with scaffolding