Carmen Berenguer\'s \"Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro\" (1983): Writing Oppression

[Title PPT]
Good afternoon everyone, my presentation today will be about a poem titled Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro by Chilean poet Carmen Berenguer.

[Slide with Berenguer's picture]
Carmen Berenguer found out about Bobby Sands' death in 1981 through a local Chilean publication. With that reference, she decided to pay homage to the activist by writing her first poetry book Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro. The author asserted in an interview: "El hombre como símbolo idealista es fundamental y quería reflejar el deseo de libertad de un hombre, encerrado detrás de un muro, en la prisión, como símbolo de lo que sucede en Chile y otras partes del mundo" (Berenguer). Therefore, the poem can be read from a Chilean perspective as she denounced Pinochet's regime through her poetic construction of Sands. In words of Chilean theorist Soledad Bianchi, it is possible to establish "mas semejanzas que diferencias con la situación de Bobby Sands y [la razón] por la que había muerto". The Chilean reading to this text is one of its many possibilities of interpretation, yet it is the one considered for this brief analysis.

[Picture of newspaper reporting Bobby Sands' death]
Firstly, as Berenguer's access to details concerning Bobby Sands' life and death was limited just to one source that inspired her to write the poem, Berenguer developed her own articulation of Sands' voice in order to write against the dictatorship without making direct reference to it. The poem Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro was published in November 1983, Carmen Berenguer was the sole responsible for its production and publication, as it was a self-managed project that ultimately survived its underground origin. The context in which the text appeared was one of utter censorship, so her attempt challenged the regime in terms of content and production. To this day, Berenguer's poem remains as an important source of poetry written during dictatorship times and deserves close attention as she developed a poetic voice that not only celebrated idealism and endurance, but also condemned state brutality and abuse.






[Slide with the texts' original cover]
Berenguer's articulation of Bobby Sands turns him into a victorious figure, despite the inevitability of his physical death in the poem. The voice of the oppressed withstands and survives the text and the passing of time, making us engage with a hybrid creation set in Long Kesh, Belfast that ultimately appeals to a Chilean audience.
This presentation will develop three points of analysis. The first one is the use of a transatlantic reference to conceive a poem that denounces Pinochet's regime. This will be followed by main themes developed in the poem that shed light on what Berenguer seeks to elevate and condemn in her first work. Finally, a brief view of the use of calligrams or graffitis in the poem and their importance in both image/shape and content.

[Epitaph]
In this first slide we can see the beginning of the poem. It opens with an epitaph. This is Berenguer's epitaph which is formed by two quotations from the translation into Spanish of two entries from Bobby Sands' diary: the first half written on Sunday 8 March 1981 and the second on Friday March 13, 1981. Carmen Berenguer attempts to honour Bobby Sands through his own words. This gesture is problematic as the source to these quotations is a local Chilean publication. Berenguer did not have access to Sands' original writing, so she relied on the translations provided, which were not accurate.
There are two important elements to consider in this epitaph that indeed appear in Sands' original diary, which are the figures of the lark and the crow. Both birds symbolise different attitudes and moods. While the lark ascends high and sings in a gesture interpreted as summoning and anticipating spring times, crows are more related to death and an earthly existence, also to be commonly seen in urban landscapes. In this epitaph we find the first section hoping for better times to come, represented by the renewal of life to be expected in spring, and the end of it with crows circulating the dying body of Berenguer's Bobby Sands.

[Final quote from the poem]
The poem finishes with another translation from Sands diary, which is not particularly ambiguous, that shows Sands' open invitation to write about what he was going through as he, whilst weakening day by day was not going to achieve it. Carmen Berenguer chooses to end her poem with this quotation, allowing her readership to understand that her intentions are to elevate Bobby Sands' death as a heroic one and, as she has explained, to show his deadly path through a medical researched description of hunger in her poem. The fact that historical Bobby Sands was imprisoned for political reasons helps to relate Berenguer's version of him to the Chilean case.
[Dia 44]
There are a few themes in the poem that are worth mentioning. The first one deals with idealising a process of self-sacrifice as Berenguer's Bobby Sands equals himself to Jesus. The use of the word "agonia", which derives from the Greek term 'agon' makes reference to a mental or physical struggle. In Christian terms it relates to the Passion of Christ. In the last line of this quotation, Berenguer's Sands is closer to the Christian saviour, as he ends up cleaning up his wounds after torture. As Jesus' sacrifice on the cross responded to an infinite love, according to the Scriptures, Berenguer shows Bobby Sands in her poem as one that dies for the love of his ideals. The way Sands sacrifices himself in the poem turns him into an icon in terms of an ideological stand. It is his dissidence that brings him to jail and he endures faithful to his principles, which are aspects to associate with Pinochet's opponents while imprisoned and tortured in the many detention camps that existed in the country. Berenguer's Bobby Sands represents those that the author wishes to pay tribute to, that despite their bodies being silenced through violence, their spirits are not shaken. Their ideals remain the same.

[Dia 54]
The following quotation, to be found almost by the end of the poem, shows firstly, the silence and solitude of his sacrifice. This poetic Bobby Sands is in pain and is desperate, as he is severely undernourished, despite choosing this by hunger-striking. However, his life, his companion, has all his love. He holds on to life in a symbolic way as in the poem he is physically facing certain death. The use of the word "Compañera" is related to a political stance in Chilean politics. It was often the term used by members of the communist and socialist parties to refer to political comrades. It was also a very important word during Salvador Allende's administration as he often referred to himself as "Compañero Presidente." In one of his last speeches, on 4 September 1973, Allende finishes his discourse asking Chileans to trust him and to believe in the socialist agenda that Unidad Popular was attempting to carry out: "Al despedirme, les repito lo que les dijera hace tres años: a la lealtad de ustedes, responderé con la lealtad de un gobernante del Pueblo, con la lealtad del Compañero Presidente." So this word was evidently part of the leftist movement in Chile. In the poem, life is dear to Bobby Sands as his sacrifice was a political, as well as an emotional one. The poem here bonds his life, his love and companionship to an ideological sign, which is in the use of the word "compañera".




[Ultimo dia]
His last day, stated as "Ultimo día" show that the passing by of time is unclear. It foreshadows the end of the poem, and perhaps the end of Berenguer's Bobby Sands as well. This final tercet shows a sort of everlasting idealism, as poetic Sands envisions the Irish flag by the cliffs. This alternative version of Sands never loses, as his cause transcends his own life and he dies in a state of hallucination, envisioning with what he had sought for. Locked in his cell, Berenguer's Sands does not lose sight of his motivation. Perhaps this point is key when providing a Chilean reading of the text, as many of those imprisoned during the regime never gave up their political ideals, and they overcame torture in their dignity. In this sense, these final lines can be read as celebrating those who never yield.

[Picture of Carmen Berenguer]
Finally, there are two calligrams or graffitis that I have selected to show you that Berenguer's poem also plays with form and content. As the poem's title Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro suggests, the poetic voice is slowly dying within the walls of his imprisonment. Nevertheless, the pages of the poem can also be understood as walls if what is being written is also drawn. This would imply that Berenguer's Bobby Sands is dying while the poem is read and his life is leaving him in every line. White pages can be interpreted as white walls where the prisoner draws his desperation and attempts to leave a message on them while death fast approaches.

[Dia 40]
On day 40, as we see, the page is turned to the left. Apart from the ideological reading of this gesture, what is being drawn also provides an image that needs consideration. As Sands is thirsty, on his fortieth day on hunger strike in the poem, he asks to be hydrated by means of a dropper. Drops fall into Bobby Sands' mouth in a moment when he is probably lying on his bed also resisting for his cause. Little by little, the drops fall to the ground, in a vertical manner, as the poem is placed in this direction. Words also fall vertically to the reader when seeing this wall. At the same time, the separation between the lines also provides the image of the bars that hold him in the cell. In the poem, Berenguer's speaker uses the word "barrotes", making reference to his permanent state of imprisonment.





[Dia 50]
The next slide shows Day 50. The image on this wall, by considering the content central verses, shows three lines and a single vertical one that might resemble the attempt to count days on a wall, as the political prisoner is isolated from society and does not have the means to know much about dates or time passing. The general image drawn with letters and words on this day is clear: this is his cell. This last image before the ending of the poem reminds readers that political prisoners are still behind bars, unseen, being tortured. Indeed they were, as Berenguer published her poem during the dictatorship. The image of the cage transcends the poem and looks for a reminder, as a sort of wake up call to those who are not imprisoned, to fight for the liberation of these men and women from the powers of the oppressors, in this case, Pinochet's institutions.

[Final picture, political prisoners]
As a general conclusion, Bobby Sands desfallece en el muro is a poem that aims to bring about resistance in the shape of denunciation. Carmen Berenguer is able to use Bobby Sands' voice to write oppression in order to condemn what was happening in Chile, at a point where censorship and an atmosphere of terror made it difficult—and dangerous—to articulate any opposition. Albeit not addressing the dictatorship directly, the content of the book guides the readers into understanding that Berenguer's articulation of Bobby Sands represents Chilean prisoners during Pinochet's regime. The imaginary walls in which poetic Sands draws and writes about his pains and fears also enhance the importance of activism in the streets, as they are for everyone to see.
Finally, it is important not to forget that the politico-economic meaning of torture during Pinochet's dictatorship was, as John Beverley clearly asserted: "the material basis of neoliberal ideology". Thank you.