The Sound of the Strike (Colombia, 1938) - Gonzalo Buenahora

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Credit: Barrancabermeja Virtual, June 11,2024

Historical Context:

In the early 1920s, the Barrancabermeja oil field was discovered in the Magdalena River basin, near the town of Barrancabermeja. This discovery led to increased exploration and production activities by international oil companies in the area, such as the Tropical Oil Company (later known as the Colombian Petroleum Company or COLPET).

In this piece, Gonzalo Buenahora writes about a labor dispute between oil workers and their employers in the late 1920s. During what began as a peaceful protest, government officials were ordered to open fire on protesters, Many were killed as a result. In the years following, numerous strikes have been organized by the USO (syndicated workers union), including as recently as March of 2023.

Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo was elected president in 1934, almost unopposed, and as the second participant of the so-called Liberal Hegemony in Colombia, his initial government platform became known under the name "Revolución en Marcha" (Marching Revolution), as it attempted to implement far reaching social and political reforms. Several radical changes were promoted during his first administration, as the government supported the creation of labor unions, this may explain why Buenahora references him in this piece.





"The Sound of the Strike" ("El Son de la Huelga," Colombia, 1938) By Gonzalo Buenahora.

Translated by Abel Guzman. 

English:

To His Excellency President of the Liberal Republic 

Don Alfonso López

A strike in Barrancabermeja

12:38 on the 8th of April

People screaming strike! Strike!

There isn't even space for a gun.

Nevertheless everything stopped.

The workers, tired, crossed their arms

Work stopped when someone collapsed

The workers facing life or death 

Swore over the corpse

To never return to the plants

Until the agreement was signed

And a faraway yell could be heard 

Let’s strike

No working

There goes a parade of flags fighting against the wind

Green flags

Workers Union flags

White flags

Patriotic flags

Red revolutionary flags

And a close yell could be heard 

for Lopez

not for Shannon 

It's a parade of overalls

A parade of shirts the color of oil

Not black, not green, not yellow

And the loudest yell so far

for Colombia

Not for trade

Workers walk by

With their flags held high

Their arms linked together

Their hearts beating like lightning

Their foreheads anvils in the sun

Of crowned sweat

Their mouths full of screams

Neck veins swollen

They yell with iron voices

Tolima y Cundinamarca

They have voices like bronze

Narino, Huila, and Cauca

The voices of the women 

Are voices of fine silver

The voices of the elderly 

Hollow voices like tin sheets

Voices like cleaned steel

Those of the coast

Cristal horns soundoff

They yell Antioquia and Caldas.

They are golden bugles 

Large, loud, and thundering

Thundering hearts

When santander screams

Like the voice of 100 lions

For a diamond bugle

The workers go by

With their flags held high

It's a human serpent

Through the streets of Barranca

Fry cooks, refiners

Tailors and portworkers

Laborers and canners

Firefighters and gaugers

Drivers and railway workers

The guards look at them, look

The guards are looking at them

Until they hear the order

to fire into the masses 

Because if it’s apart of the crowd it’s liberal

Well, of what I know, in Colombia

Fortunately there  are no other masses.

And it's the same guns

That in times of hegemony 

Also shot on the town

The workers blood washes over the streets of Barranca 

and at the end of the massacre

You could still hear the painful and sarcastic screams

For Lopez.

Not trade.

For Lopez.

For Lopez.



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This text was taken from Gonzalo Buenahora's, Huelga en Barranca: Contribución a la lucha contra el imperialismo

(Bogotá: Tipografía Rojas, 1938). It is translated from it's original spanish to english.

Español:

Al excelentísimo señor presidente de la república

liberal don alfonso lópez

Huelga en barrancabermeja.

Meridiano y 38 a los ocho días de abril.

Y al grito de huelga! huelga!

No hay donde quepa un fusil.

No obstante todo paró.

Las máquinas, cansadas, cruzáronse de brazos.

El trabajo se murió de un colapso.

Los obreros-vida o muerte-

Juraron sobre el cadáver

No volver a las usinas

Hasta no firmado el pacto.

Y se oye un grito lejano........

Huelga si.

Trabajo nó.

Allá viene un desfile de banderas peleando con el viento.

Banderas verdes.

Banderas de la USO.

Banderas blancas.

Banderas de la patria.

banderas rojas de la revolución.

y se oye el grito cercano........

López sí

Shannon nó.

Es un desfile de overoles.

Es un desfile de camisas color de aceite. -no negras. no verdes. no amarillas-.

Y el grito más fuerte aun........

Colombia sí

Troco nó.

Es que pasan los obreros con sus banderas en alto

Los brazos hechos de nudos

El corazón de relàmpagos.

La frente -yunque del sol-

De sudores coronada.

La boca llena de gritos

Las venas del cuello hinchadas.

Y gritan con voz de hierro

Tolima y cundinamarca.

Y tienen voces de bronce

Nariño, huila y el cauca.

Las voces de las mujeres

Son voces de fina plata.

Las voces de los ancianos

Huecas voces de hojalata.

Voces límpidas de acerco

Las del litoral atlántico.

Suenan trompas de cristal

Si gritan antioquia y caldas.

Y son clarines de oro

Largos, sonoros, tonantes,

-Tonantes de corazones-

Cuando grita santander

Que es la voz de 100 leones

Por un clarín de diamante.

Van pasando los obreros

Con sus banderas en alto.

Es una serpiente humana

Por las calles de barranca.

Paileros, refinadores,

Marineros, constructores,

Taladreros y portuarios,

Braceros, embazadores,

Bomberos y medidores,

Choferes y ferroviarios.

La guardia los mira mira

La guardia los va mirando

Hasta que escucha la orden

De disparar a la masa

Que si es masa es liberal

Pues, que yo sepa, en colombia

No hay por fortuna otra masa.

Y son los mismos fusiles

Que en tiempos de hegemonía

También al pueblo abalearon.

Sangre obrera lava las calles de barranca.

Y al final de la matanza

Se oye aún el grito doloroso y sarcástico.......

López sí.

Troco no.

López sí.

López sí.

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Translator's Note - Abel Guzman

Gonzalo Buenahora was a Colombian poet who wrote “El son de la Huelga,” a piece detailing the oil strike in Barrancabermeja April 8, 1924. While researching this I came across details of more recent strikes but very little detailing this strike and its resulting massacre. Buenahora details a violent reaction to peaceful protesting and the oppression of the messes through the power of the state. He is recognized in the Anarchists library and it seems that this strike has shaped his writings. This poem stood out as it fit the narrative of oppresed people overcoming their oppresors to reach a common goal.

Some notes to be made on the writing style of Buenahora are his lack of capitalization be it the start of a sentence of the name of a town or country. In his original 1938 "Huelga en Barranca." 

Citation:

Guzman Abel, Translator, "The Sound of the Strike, (Colombia, 1938) by Gonzalo Buenahora," Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, Summer, 2024.

The Sound of the Strike (Colombia, 1938) - Gonzalo Buenahora