JUANCITO Options

[Psyche]

Juancito

-  Juancito, it’s Christmas Eve:
here’s a slice of cake and a bottle of cider!
With these goodies, by your father’s side,
you must celebrate Nativity.
Village folks will make merry,
drinking grape-sherry,
Juancito, it’s a fine festivity!
There’ll be no talk of sorrow,
don’t come to work tomorrow,
you’ll be absent with my leave,
it’s Christmas Eve,
... Juancito!

- Señor, thank you for these gifts
but I cannot take them home,
I can’t figure out your Christmas!
My life is set adrift
since my Dad went off to roam
the land, he labours on an icy isthmus.
Poverty offers me no shelter,
but Dad will bring me something better,
he told me Jesus was poor like me,
He loved children to play by Him,
we’ll sing a communal hymn
when Dad returns from the faraway sea.

Dad tells me glorious things
so that I’m able to go on living;
together we pray to God
that we’ll never be indifferent to others,
that hardship won’t make us part,
all folks are our brothers.
We’ll not be unmoved by pain,
no wars will harden our hearts.
Wars are monsters, stomping insane
on the innocence of people,
young, old and feeble.
We dream about the future,
a reborn culture
written in the Scriptures.

Señor, my family and me
will hold hands in the summer solstice,
and our good mother
will abide by
us, dreaming peace and justice
under angel’s wings.
Oh, little Star of Bethlehem,
twinkling
over our Southern night sky!

By Psyche

Copyright: Sylvia Maclagan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005.


Note: I live in the Southern Hemisphere, that's why my Christmas poem makes reference to the Summer solstice. It's summertime now.
There's lots of child labour in Latin America, all the way up to Mexico. This poem is about Juancito, a small boy who works 8 days a week in a factory.

[Guest_Cathy_*]

Hi Sylvia,

There are so many different ways to celebrate Christmas,
different traditions and interpretations of the season ...
it's amazing.  But hopefully, Jesus is at the core of all.

Good luck with the competition!
Cathy

[Psyche]

Thank you, Cathy, for dropping by.  

Yes, we're sweltering under 30ºC already in November !!

In my country, if you're lucky (not like Juancito), you sit around a swimming pool eating cold salads and sipping cider, maybe some ice-cream thrown in and other etceteras !

Hugs,
Sylvia  

[Nefertiti]

Hi Sylvia!

Oh, this makes me sad.  It touches my heart!  Pobresito!!!!  I wanna just make it all better for Juancinito!  This shines a different light on Christmas that most of us never even bother to see.  Thanks for enlightening me!

Big Hugs,
B.

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thank you for your Holiday entry!  :holly:

Best of luck to you!  :dove:

May the 'classic' holiday spirit be shared in your heart throughout the season!  :blueorn:

~ Mosaic Musings Staff  :knight:  :pharoah:  :viking:  :vic:  :troy:  :roman:  :cali:  :tut:  :knight:

[Guest_Toumai_*]

Hi Sylvia,

A wonderful and moving tribute to those poor children who sweat that we may wear cheap trainers ...

There are so many people around the world who really do need the spirit of the season to reach out and lift them out of poverty or sickness.

I do love the southern hemisphere take on the season. we have Aussie friends and they have a BBQ on the beach on Christmas day.

Hugs,

Fran

[Psyche]

Hi Fran !  :snowflake:  :dove:

Yes, it's a sad & true fact that most of the good clothes and other articles in the world are made in sweatshops, mostly by children and women.

Recently I saw a good Mexican-American movie about a rather plump Mexican girl who manages to get out of the sweatshops because she's earned herself a scholarship to Columbia University in N.Y.  It has a happy ending, but stark reality is very different for most kids who work in sweatshops. I wonder what Jesus would have to say....  :blush21:  :(

Yes, Christmas can be fun in the Southern Hemisphere. BBQ's are frequent, we call them "asados", but nowadays even meat in Argentina is extremely expensive.... what an irony, the country of the fertile pampas full of fat cows !!

Thank you for commenting on my poem, Fran,
hugs,
Sylvia  :dove:  :cheer:

[Psyche]

Hi Sylvia!

Oh, this makes me sad.  It touches my heart!  Pobresito!!!!  I wanna just make it all better for Juancinito!  This shines a different light on Christmas that most of us never even bother to see.  Thanks for enlightening me!

Big Hugs,
B.

Hi Nef !!

Thank you for reading my poem. Yes, I guess we all want to make it better for the "Juancitos" of the world. There are truly millions of them.

To think that Jesus said that "he who harms a little child, is harming me" (my words, I didn't reach for the Gospels, sorry). But that's what I was thinking about when I wrote my poem. I couldn't help it, because the streets of my city, Buenos Aires, are full of homeless children, scavanging in the rubbish for any little article to sell to the "mafiosi" of the city's garbage. Yes, the children are also exploited by mafiosi and even the police,  let alone this issue of the sweatshops.

For a few years now, I don't find Christmas as uplifting as I used to. But I tried to make my poem touching by showing that the little "Juancitos" of the world believe in Jesus and the promise of a better life... it's what keeps them going, poor kids.

But the quality of my poem is not very good, I know that, since I was not feeling particularly motivated...  :(

Hugs to you,
Sylvia  :dove:

[Psyche]

Thank you, Cleo !!  :snowflake:  :xmas:
I've been a "good sport"... ha...ha.... you know very well that I wasn't feeling motivated !!  :laugh:
Hugs,
Sylvia  :dove:

[Blank_Canvas]

Sylvia,
   Have been without a computer for some time and am just now getting an opportunity to read the newer holiday entries, You may not have felt motivated, but this was so moving. An entirely different view of the holidays. Thank you for sharing !
                                            Marcia