¿Quién Eres?
by Sabine R. Ulibarri, Ph.D.

The following poem is from Sabine R. Ulibarri: Critical Essays, edited by Maria Duke Dos Santós and Patricia de la Fuente, UNM Press, Albuquerque, NM 1995. Dr. Ulibarri was Professor Emeritus of the Spanish and Portugese Department at the University of New Mexico when New Mexico Genealogist editor Patricia Black Esterly spoke to him in 1999. The poem was reprinted in the Genealogist, September 1999, p. 115, and also here with his permission. NMG staff member Armando Sandoval assisted in the translation for the Genealogist.

Dr. Ulibarri passed away on January 4, 2003 in Albuquerque, NM. In a 1969 interview by the Albuquerque Journal, he talked about how language and literature professors can help rebellious young people find themselves:

"To know language is to enter into intimacy of a people. To know it is to become committed to a people, a culture, a way of life. The teacher has the magic key that will open this treasure house of love."

¿Quién Eres?

Si olvidas de dónde vienes,
¿Sabes tú a dónde vas?
Si has perdido tu pasado,
¿donde esta tu porvenir?

Si eres hombre sin historia,
serás hombre sin futuro.
Si reniegas de tus padres
¿que esperaras de tus hijos?

Si no tienes parentesco
con tu familia y tu pueblo
cuando ríes, ríes solo,
cuando lloras, lloras solo.

Un presente solitario,
sin ayer y sin mañana
Sin parientes, sin compadres,
sin amigos, sin hermanos.

Qué solo estás en el mundo,
perdido en la niebla blanca.
Solo, con tu culpa a cuestas
y tu soledad a solas.

If you forget where you came from, can you know where you're going?
If you've lost your past, where is your future?

If you're a man without a history, you're a man without a future.
If you turn your back on your parents, what can you expect from your children?

If you have no kinship with your family and your community,
when you laugh, you laugh alone, when you cry, you cry alone.

A solitary present without a yesterday or a tomorrow
without parentage, without fellowship, without friends, without brothers.

How alone you are in the world, How lost in the white mist.
Alone, with your guilt on your back. Alone, with your loneliness.