Joceline Hernandez Marroquin (b. 1996) is a Salvadoran-Statesian multidisciplinary artist, poet, and humanist interested in the intersection between inner child and collective healing, sovereignty, and transformation. Inspired by Indigenous and various oppressed peoples' teachings and narratives on reciprocity with the land, regenerative approaches in agriculture, and acts of resilience in the face of adversity, her work is an act of love in the ongoing pursuit of individual and collective liberation.
I heard the heart beating
As strongly as
the other night--
only today, it was
much louder &
fuller during the
day.
It pumped and pumped
and brought me back to
the realization of families
being separated, people
being captured, La Gente
resisting as they seek a
way to live in spite of
el dolor que nos persigue
cada dia.
I heard the heart beating
as strongly as it did this
morning;
sitting under an oak
tree, wounds mended as
smiles exchanged between
strangers
who'd otherwise never
meet muse on about
the day without care,
sin miedo.
I heard the heart beat
as my friend recalls
the life they have made,
wondering about leaving
it all behind, I hear the
Heart beat as a woman
recounts her worries
despite her need to keep
persisting, people like you
and I with shaky voices and
fear in their eyes but leaving
it all to Divine.
El Pueblo vencera
in these Divided
States; a nation made of
People awakened on the
streets reflected to us and
captured on screens--
min an-nahr, ila Al-bahr.
And as the heart beats
while I sleep;
El Pueblo unido
nos llama, for a way
forward to examine
the layers of grief,
anger, confusion--
to realize el estado
fascismo as it is unfolds
in front of us;
to recognize the humanity
in each and every being;
and remember joy
in spite of adversity as
to reveal this eternal love
hidden underneath this
kaleidoscope of life.
This is what I heard.
