Juana Peñate Montejo is a Ch’ol poet and writer from Tumbalá, Chiapas, Mexico. She has authored several books of poetry in Ch’ol with self-translations in Spanish, including Ipusik’al Matye’lum / Corazón de la Selva (Pluralia) and, most recently, Isoñil Ja’al / Danza de la Lluvia, which won the 2020 Premio de Literaturas Indígenas de América.
Ch’ol embroidered shirts / Photo by Diana Laura Montejo
I Am the Alphabet
They say, grass born in the forest,
my body holds the freshness of mountains.
I have absorbed the garden’s blossoming,
my…
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