El Imperio de Calibán

Un  día como hoy hace cincuenta años, el Dr. Martin Luther King pronunció uno de los discursos más famosos de la historia de Estados Unidos. Ese día se celebraba la  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Marcha a Washington por el trabajo y la libertad) y Luther King fue último de los oradores que se dirigió a la multitud reunida frente al monumento a Lincoln. Allí pronunció las palabras que le inmortalizaron:

[…] I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. «We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.»

I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.
I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

En esta entrevista de Amy Goodman y Juan González, el historiador William P. Jones, (autor de The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights) y el periodista Gary Younge,  (autor de  The Speech: The Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream) contextualizan históricamente tanto la marcha como el discurso de King. Ambos nos recuerdan, que ese día se marchó por algo más que la igualdad política.