UNCONQUERED

I eat breakfast
and watch Moctezuma's
throat be slashed, the
conquest unfold,

Sor Juana at the 
top/edge, encircled in
violet, her poet's
heart on fire, La

Virgen carried on a 
banner, Coatlique in
disguise, her skulls
hidden under her

gentle dress, a 
woman giving birth
with great IxChel's
help, as all women

are, umbilical cord
dangling from vagina,
child alive, survivor of
the conquest, I am

a survivor of the 
conquest, a wild
mestiza child, my
poet's heart on 

fire, I am the 
dreamer, one of 
thousands, Moctezuma
slaughtered, terrified of

our dreams, our visions,
now I sit, centuries
later, my dreams,
visions, memory,

intact- I see the
Great Books burning, 
I weep, this I know,
dreams can't be

burned, I see
Sor Juana's 
poet's heart on
fire,

as the woman's 
vagina burns with
birth, IxChel singing,
"Dreamers, you have

survived, each century
your voices stronger,
sweeter, your poet's heart
unconquered, dream

new words,
new stories,
new Great Books, on
fire." 


To Sor Juana's heart

*Written at Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende,
Mexico, while gazing at the magnificent mural of
Mexico's his/herstory, on fire, unconquered. 
March 2014

Alma Luz Villanueva
(c) copyright, 2014