CAMILO, IN ALL CERTAINTY
Today we celebrate Camilo. Some years ago, in fact quite some years ago, I wrote a poem that ended with some lines which I think sum up the Spiritual Experience and the Permanent Presence, of Camilo...
"Camilo is the Poem
that I'm always writing...”
Camilo, plain and simple Camilo... The Myth, the Hero, the Brother, the Comrade, the Friend, the Guerrilla, the Comandante, the Legend...
Camilo, the Youth who is still a Youth. Because Heroes, Myths, Legends, are not frozen in time, but do indeed live forever, as we knew them, as we saw them, as we wanted them, as we love them, as we see them, as we had them, because we have them...
Camilo, the young man with the eternal smile... Camilo, always on the move, who continues on walking alongside his People, seeing us there on the sidewalks in San Antonio, where we shared experiences with Chano, the shoe-shiner; with Rosita the fruit-seller; with Angelita, Rosita's daughter; with Marcelo, the barber, with the man in the hardware store; with the Golden Ant; with all these Characters, so many Characters who walked then and walk now those streets in memory and dreams, and in the realities we live today...
Camilo, with his eternal checkered shirts, lanky, patient, alert, always as if discovering new Futures and Lights.
Camilo, the Younger Brother, Everyone's Friend... The Musical one, because he loved the music of that time... Poetry, Painters, Artists, a World in which we all dreamed of what we would do to change the World...
Camilo, and his "Little Help from my Friends” in Woodstock, in La Bolívar, which had a different name then, but today is called, victoriously, Sandino, in this Nicaragua liberated by Loves like Camilo's, Intense Loves, Intense Lives, Lives given, with Swelling Heart and Wings intact, so as to create the necessary Victories, the indispensable Battles, the Joys, the Struggles and the Dawns that belong to us...
Camilo, friend to all, the youngest of the brothers, the youngest of Doña Lidia and Don Daniel, their littlest one, Son of Che, Fidel, Sandino, Leonel, of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, who welcomed him with Immense Pride along with so many thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of Brave, Heroic Nicaraguans, Missionaries, Militants of Liberation...
Camilo, a Youth Forever, Youth vibrating with the Youth of all Times... Myth, Legend, Reality, True Truths, the Undefeated and Intact Commitment of so many, such that, today, we are the Triumphant Revolution, the Daily Revolution obliging us to make more and more Victorious our Revolution which is simply its Evolution...
Camilo, how much you didn't say... How much you did and continue to do with that Imperturbable, Eternal Smile, on that beloved Face that remained, that remains, Stardust, Light of the Future, Nicaraguan Soul, Guerrilla Soul, Great, Proud, Triumphant Soul, Soul, Soul...
Camilo, Combatant, a Blessing of your Mother's Infinite Faith, and the infinite Faith of your People, our Infinite Faith, to Always Go Further On, in your name and in the name of all those who have fought, all those who overcame, and continue fighting all our Battles, in the Greatness and Infinite Dimension of this our People, who give us everything, who nurture us and nourish us, committing us to Go Further, to the Eternal, to the Future, to those Times and at all Times, to build with Invincible, Incorruptible, Gigantic Love, the Peace that is Ours, the Peace we demand, the Peace we long for, in the Sacred and Irrevocable Legacy of a Free Patriotic Nation, to Win, to Overcome and Win again because We Strive, We Fight, We Fight On...
Camilo, Heroic and Incorruptible Youth... Camilo, Songs and Flowers in the Wind... Camilo, inspiring the emphatic Not One Step Back!
Camilo, So Much Hope, Nicaragua, your Nicaragua, Camilo, Never Selling Out, Never Giving Up!
And so it is, Compañeras, Compañeros, in this Plane we live out the Heroic Dimension of our People, as Brothers and Sisters, as Compañeras and Compañeros, as Militants, and Combatants full of Love, like Camilo, and we feel United, Together, as Eternal Youth, fighting all our Battles and winning them all as Victories!
Managua, December 13th 2024
Rosario Murillo