The land of the colonized, Colombia and all of Latin America reflect in Dirian Merina’s “Migrations”. I related greatly to two elements used in this poem since they form part of my heritage. The first of these had to do with our history as a colony and a nation. It makes a reference to the ships crossing the oceans like “veins and blood rushing”. The image this portrayed was that of a bleeding continent, slowly losing its resources, cultures and richness. This was represented in the poem by the enormous list of items in the ships’ cargo, many, unique to the New World. Still, this reference doesn’t necessarily remain in that colonial past. Today, we trade away our fortune in resources for low prices and cripple our native’s culture by isolating them.
The second part of the poem that moved me was the mixing of races described there. It represented fusion of races as it truly happened. First, came the whites and the Indians. Then, blacks were added to the combining population. Eventually it ended with the more obscure degrees of mixing. This showed how these different degrees become irrelevant by become a single race. Although, this unique race can or not appear eventually, it could make our culture homogeneous as well. So, this poem left with a question I continue to ponder: is such a level of cultural similarity, like that found in Latin-American countries, really acceptable? Would such a racial unification really help reduce world problems?
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