Synopsis:
This poem explores how language shows Andalusia’senduring resistance to Castile’s colonisation.
Hills and white towns with whitewashed walls,
red or brown tiled roofs,
chumberas with prickly pears,
sun, sea and olive groves.
The workers in the fields,
and servants of tourism
landowners and corporates profiteering.
Inequalities breed poverty.
Pain but hope.
Andalusia,
Al-Andalus,
first Spanish colonial enterprise,
called by nationalists ‘re-conquest’,
precursor of the invasion of
The Americas,
Abya Yala.
Andalusia resists in the names of its geography:
Almería, and Cadiz, the peeks of Almanzor,
Alcazaba and Mulhacén, the rivers Guadalhorce,
Guadalmedina, Guadalfeo, Almanzora
Guadalete, Guadiana and Guadalquivir.
There is resistance in the fruits and the flowers:
lemon, orange and azahar
jasmine, lilac, and almond.
Animals resist colonisation: gazelles, jabalíes and alacranes.
Andalusian colours resist:
añil, azure, crimson, curcumin and scarlet
Andalusian minerals resist too:
amber, lazurite, kalium, natrium, sodium, tartar and zircon
Serendipity in chemistry, becomes resistant acts.
Alcohols and elixirs too,
as well as in math, zero and cyphers in numbers,
algorithms and algebra.
There is resistance at home
sometimes built with adobes
and inside the house in mattresses and sofas,
almohadas, almohadillas,
and at the table:
in carafes or jars,
in artichokes, aubergines, spinach with chickpeas,
turron and alfajores
with carob, caraway, saffron, and tarragon,
in tuna
in sorbet and sugar
and in a demi-tasse of coffee
accompanied with good tobacco.
Resistance sings accompanied
by guitars, lutes, drums, timbals and tambourines
Andalusia resists from zenith to nadir
and resistance becomes its talisman.
