Revolutionary Love

I once fell in love with a voice over the radio that woke me up each morning with words of love for his people. I once loved a man because he could sing 101 songs in the fields as he worked as a farmworker. I loved another because he had a laugh that embraced all those around him, though he had been tortured. These men, I loved for their acts. I loved them, as I have loved others, for the stories they gave me. They were not meant nor destined for romantic love. I shared with them "revolutionary love."

[Adapted from Patrísia Gonzales's "Amor Revolucionario (Revolutionary Love)," published in the Column of the Americas.]

To truly love another person requires a readiness to face down anti-human reactionaries who view love primarily as a commodity from which to extract profit and also requires that we face our own weaknesses and turn them into strengths. In short, if we do not share struggle, we can not share love. Love is a function of life and these anti-humans are constantly and consciously committed to oppressing, exploiting and killing us. During times of war and oppression, such as these are, there is no other love possible but serious and shared struggle. Every battle we "consciously" wage together will bring us closer and bind us more firmly, will increase our understanding of each other and the world. Revolutionary struggle brings with it revolutionary love.

[Adapted from Kalamu ya Salaam's "Revolutionary Struggle/Revolutionary Love" published in Chicken Bones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes.]

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