I have no particular tie to the events taking place in Ukraine. I have various friends whose ancestors came from there. When I lived in the Richmond District in San Francisco, many many years ago, we had a place on Sixth Street. Just around the corner, on Balboa, there was a Ukrainian place called The Cinderella Bakery. This was my favorite place to have breakfast, and sometimes even lunch. The regular waitress was a large stern woman in her late fifties named Irina. There was something about the place that made me feel at home, as if I were in someone’s house. Piroshkies, pirogies, borsht, golubtsy, pelmeni, I still remember the warmth I felt when I ate there. People are people. To invade them is to destroy an essential human construct, home.
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No tengo vínculo particular con los acontecimientos que ocurren hoy en día en Ucrania. Tengo varios amigos cuyos antepasados vinieron de allí. Cuando vivía en el distrito de Richmond en San Francisco, hace muchos años, teníamos un apartamento en Sixth Street. A la vuelta de la esquina, sobre Balboa, había un local ucraniano llamado The Cinderella Bakery (La Panadería Cenicienta). Este era mi lugar favorito para desayunar y, a veces, incluso para almorzar. La mesera habitual era una mujer grande, rubia, y severa de cincuenta y tantos años llamada Irina. Había algo en el lugar que me hacía sentir como en casa, como si estuviera en la casa de alguien. Piroshkies, pirogies, borsht, golubtsy, pelmeni, todavía recuerdo el calor humano que sentía cuando comía allí. Gente es gente. Invadirla es destruir una construcción esencialmente humana, el hogar
lyrics
THOSE WHO REMAIN
Up upon the ridge
In amongst the trees
I look down upon the dawn
Of an open valley
There the lights
Have yet to die
One by one
They yield before the day
The mist that softly cooledIs
now burnt off the grey
In betwixt the makeshift rubble
Lies my secret jewel
I have no truths
But I’ve had troubles
And I am here to say
I have something yet to lose
I have something yet to lose
And though fear grips me
Like the blue air grips a falling man
My doubts stand fewer
Even than my hopes
And though I won’t last past
The last skip of my stone
My visions incandesce
And open
As the petals
Fall from this embrace
I will believeI will believe
released March 7, 2022
Compuesto y producido por George Mario Angel Quintero
GTN-D20
