never again in latin
Never Again: An Excerpt from 11
augusto pinochet
Editor’s Note: This excerpt from Carlos Soto-Román’s 11, translated collectively by Alexis Almeida, Daniel Beauregard, Daniel Borzutzky, Whitney DeVos, Patrick Greany, Robin Myers, Jessica Pujol Durán, and Thomas Rothe and soon to be published by Ugly Duckling Presse, was originally published in the September 2022 issue of our sister journal, World Literature Today.
We are proud to share this excerpt with LALT’s readers in bilingual edition.
Translator’s Note
The title of Carlos Soto-Román’s 11 isn’t just a number—it’s a date. On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet led a military coup to oust the democratically elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, ushering in a seventeen-year dictatorship that completely upended the country’s political and social system. Assembled from found material such as declassified documents, testimonies, interviews, and media files, 11 immerses readers in the state-sponsored terror during this period as well as the dilemmas of documenting human rights violations and ensuring they are never repeated. The poetry here adopts the form of collage, erasure, and appropriation, the language emerging from censorship and suffocation as experienced under military rule. Soto-Román’s work asks us to understand the past through what has been covered up, to reflect on the spoken and unspoken pieces that interact to create a collective memory.
Bringing 11 into English poses several problems regarding authorship, given the book’s use of multiple voices and records. The project has therefore been taken on as a collaborative translation involving eight translators from diverse backgrounds: Alexis Almeida, Daniel Beauregard, Daniel Borzutzky, Whitney DeVos, Patrick Greany, Robin Myers, Jessica Pujol Durán, and Thomas Rothe, who is also the coordinator and editor. Though the book specifically deals with Chile, it also draws striking parallels to current forms of nationalist rhetoric that are spreading bigotry and hate in different parts of the world. As translators, we have attempted to tap into these connections and re-create effects that, embedded in the memory of a small South American country, may offer insight or new ways of defining future adversities in the US and elsewhere.
Thomas Rothe
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Never again . . .
*
Bearing in mind:
1st – The severe economic, social, and moral crisis currently destroying our country;
*
the patriotic commitment
……………………..to restore the (broken) national spirit
……………………..to restore our (broken) justice system
……………………..to restore our (broken) institutions
aware that this is the only way:
……………………..to uphold national tradition
……………………..to uphold the legacy of our Founding Fathers
……………………..to uphold the History of Chile
aware that this is the only way:
……………………..to guide the country’s progress and evolution
……………………..into the future
V I G O R O U S L Y
*
— For having unlawfully buried a count of 15 weapons, a sizeable quantity of ammunition and explosives
— For having participated in guerrilla warfare training
— For stealing explosives
— For inciting miners to seize armories
— For inciting support of armed resistance
— For having participated in the acquisition and distribution of firearms
— For having found unlawfully buried explosives
*
………….Citizens are hereby informed that today, __ of ________, _____ at 16:00, the
following persons were executed pursuant to the provisions granted to Military Tribunals in
times of war:
*
C E R T I F I C A T E O F R E G I S T R Y
I, the undersigned Director of the Office of Detainee Control,
hereby certify that ________________________ was de-
tained in the National Stadium from _______ to _______
______________________________________ .
SANTIAGO, ______ of _____________ 1973.
Dir. Office of Detainee Control
*
APPLICATION OF THE “ESCAPE LAW”
1. Shot
2. Shot
3. Shot
4. Shot
5. Shot
6. Shot
*
DATE OF DEATH __________________________ TIME __________________
PLACE OF DEATH _________________________________________________
OBSERVATIONS __________________________________________________
Cause: Cervical thoracic trauma.
Cause: Cardiac arrest. Head injury by firearm.
Cause: Destruction of the thorax and cardial region. Execution.
*
SEPTEMBER 21, 1976 – WASHINGTON, DC
THE WHITE HOUSE
7:33 The President had breakfast.
8:02 The President went to the doctor’s office.
8:10 The President went to the Oval Office.
9:05 The President met with John O. March Jr., Counselor.
9:20 The President met with Richard B. Cheney, Assistant.
10:15 The President met with his Assistant for National Security Affairs.
10:15 The President met with his Assistant for National Security Affairs.
10:15 The President met with his Assistant for National Security Affairs.
10:15 The President met with his Assistant for National Security Affairs.
*
SPEECH AT CHACARILLAS
(trumpets)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(torches) (applause) (cheers: Pinochet! Pinochet! Pinochet!)
(trumpets)
*
My dear young people:
The future of Chile is always in you, whose glory we are now sculpting
*
Chile is you
Homeland, flag, and youth
*
thank you
Mr. president, for everything you’ve done for Chile
for our safety
for our children
god bless you
*
. . . at first, when you start, you cry and try to hide it, so nobody notices. Then, you feel
bad, a lump forms in your throat but you can hold back the tears. And then, [. . .] you get
used to it. And in the end, you don’t even feel what you’re doing anymore . . .
*
First the legs, then the sexual organs, then the heart.
They fired the machine guns in this order.
*
I was punched and kicked, pistol-whipped . . .
They gave me electric shocks . . .
Two men brutally raped me . . .
I was submitted to torture. I was raped . . .
They hit my ears, and they gave me electric shocks.
They hit me in the groin, they hit my legs with wet sacks . . .
I was tied to a post and doused with buckets of water . . .
They simulated firing-squad executions and rapes . . .
They tore the nails off my pinky toes . . .
They made me listen to a tape with recordings of children crying
and they told me they were my kids . . .
*
I was a month and a half pregnant.
I was two months pregnant.
I was three months pregnant.
I was five months pregnant.
I was six months pregnant.
Translated by Alexis Almeida, Daniel Beauregard, Daniel Borzutzky, Whitney DeVos, Patrick Greany, Robin Myers, Jessica Pujol Durán, and Thomas Rothe
Excerpt from 11, forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse in 2023. Published by arrangement with the author.
