Mardonio Carballo: (1974), is Xolo from Chicontepec, Veracruz. He writes in Náhuatl. Among his books: Qué es /qué ves, Huehuexochitlajtoli /Viejos poemas, and Las plumas de la serpiente. He is also a troubador and radio and television journalist. Thanks to Editorial Ojarasca for permission to translate into English and reprint this poem from the excellent anthology of poetry from Mexico’s indigenous languages, Insurreccion de las palabras by Hermann Bellingausen (Mexico City: Ojarasca, 2018).

Yana Lucila Lema: (1974), was born in Otavalo, Ecuador. She is a journalist, videographer, translator, cultural worker, and Kichwa storyteller. She won first prize in video for her film about traditional medicine at the Abya Yala CONAIE First Nations III Festival of Film and Video in 1999, among many other awards. She has published two anthologies of Ecuadorean indigenous poetry, Hatun Taki in 2013 and Chawpi Pachapi Arawikuna in 2015. She is professor of Literature at the Universidad de las Artes.

Eduardo Bechara Navratilova: (1972), was born in Bogotá of Czech and Lebanese parents. He studied law and literature at the University of the Andes and received a creative writing degree from Temple University where he also taught that discipline in 2009 and 2010. Among his novels are La novia del torero, Unos duermen otros no, and El juego de Maria. His poetry collections are: Poemas a una ciudad un insecto y una mujer, Mendigo por un d a, Metamorfosis II Las bestias del deseo, Metamorfosis II los animals de la culpa, and Paracaidistas de Checoslovaquia. He is the recipient of an Andr s Bello award from Spain. He is director of Editorial Escarabajo and a blogger for El Tiempo newspaper in Bogotá.

Maria Vázquez Valdez: is a Mexican poet, editor, journalist, photographer, and Doctor of Critical Theory. She has authored eleven books, among them the poetry collections Caldero (1999), Kawsay: la llama de la selva (2016) and Geómetra (2020), monologues on different parts of the world, anthologies, critical volumes and large picture books on world museums and destinations. She is also a translator. Kawsay was translated into English by Margaret Randall and published by The Operating System in 2018. She is the director of the General Library of Mexico’s Library of Congress.