After finishing a short-term consulting project on human trafficking and youth in the sex trade in Colombia, a student emailed me a link to this song by Calle 13 entitled 'Prepare (me) dinner'.... she mentioned that after transcribing the interviews from the project, she could not stop thinking of how these lyrics echo the life histories of many girls and boys we worked with.
Her email expressed the following:
[3:36 am]
--
Amy,
después de todo este proceso no dejo de pensar en esta canción, retrata muy bien las historias de todos estos hombres y mujeres.
El vídeo dice más de lo que yo puedo escribir, "No se cuentan los segundos se cuentan las historias"
"En esta vida me castigaste, me robaste tiempo, me re cagaste, mi culpabilidad es como una pecera vacía"
--
Violence touches us all...in distinct ways...it keeps us up at strange hours...makes it difficult to enjoy the holiday season...to be completely present in a family gathering...to swallow the carefully and lovingly prepared food at the dining table where I spent my childhood...on top of gut-wrenching sorrow and a stomach full of personal reflection...should I rest?...just a few days...or keep fighting the silence? Quiet times here in Connecticut by the fireplace... the silence is unbearable. The silence haunts me...disturbs my sleep through its screeching persistence...I try to drown it out with music...with more work...with more wine...this silence will not permit me to rest until we turn it around...flip silent acceptance of horrendous realities to project and operationalize grounded social change...stop trafficking through awareness before its tracks are forever ingrained in the memories of stolen youth...
