Tag: Camilo Ballena

 2026 Argentinian Indigenous Poetry Prize

Original poetry in Spanish and Wichí © Camilo Ballena

Introduction and selection © Violeta Percia y Diego Antico

Translation from Spanish © Lorrie Jayne and Juan G. Sánchez Martínez

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Camilo Ballena lives in Sip’ohi (El Sauzalito), Chaco Province, Argentina. He was raised in a community where the Wichí language and ancestral traditions formed an essential part of daily life, and the Wichí elders taught values of respect, work, and balance with nature. Camilo is a researcher of the Wichí language and a bilingual educator. In 2012, he founded the Wichi Lhomet publishing house: a collective whose purpose is to promote Wichi authors, musicians and illustrators. The project also produces educational materials. Camilo has contributed to the development of an intercultural Wichí pedagogy that is based on the principles of “hacer juntos” / Tonufweshu (“doing it together.”) Camilo Ballena is a poet, musician, and singer-songwriter whose compositions can be heard on three albums such as “Sip’ohi” and “Matojh.” 

The following poems come from the bi-lingual edition (Wichí-Spanish) of Tañhi iyahinpho / Cuando despierta el monte (“When the Forest Awakens.”) This book is the winner of Argentina’s first Indigenous Poetry Prize, 2026.

In order to make way for the Wichí vision, Tañhi iyahinpho / Cuando despierta el monte questions the vision about the forest by the Western mixed-raced [Latin American]. The poet begins with the question, “Hat’ehap n’wuye tojh n’yomey tañhi, tojhmhe nintowflayej? / How do I speak the forest to someone who has never traversed it?” He then sets upon this task, undertaking a poetic response-translation. To write poetry in two tongues, in both the Wichí and Spanish languages, is a work that surpasses episteme-phylosophical translation. As Camilo Ballena puts it, “Words which are linked to the forest, the spirits, the natural cycles and emotions, have more ample meanings than the ones conveyed in Spanish.” Respect for intercultural diversity and the rights of the people should begin in these translations. Therefore, the poet assumes the necessity of giving voice and making heard the memory of the forest, which is to listen to what the forest is saying in the Wichí language. With feet on the ground, the experience of inhabiting the territories in a new way opens the possibility of traversing the path between two languages. Everything that is buried in the forest, in the shadows and swirls, knows the sensitive worlds that converse, that ask for respect and offer reciprocity. This collection of poems centers around life in the forest, where it is understood that no one is alone and “every root is an ancient relative.” This is not a merely metaphorical or figurative expression, but one that conveys a different consciousness of life within (and with) a forest, a consciousness that not only pulsates, but also speaks and thinks throughout the generations. The forest is the guardian life, protector of the life of women and men. If that life withdraws or extinguishes, humans are left without a destiny. To speak the Gran Chaco forest in the Wichí languages is to understand and make heard the forms of future life.

This collection of poems arrives in an era when forests and ecosystems are increasingly threatened due to the deepening model of extractivism and privatization of the Earth, a model which worsens environmental injustice while endangering and suffocating life in the communities. Tañhi iyahinpho / When the Forest Awakens beckons us, “in the coming and going between languages,” to think about other possible worlds, to open a different sensibility regarding occupation of the territories and, in doing so, to produce, through poetic imagination, another subjectivity.

TAÑHI WEHEY

TAÑHI LHELE

HOPE TOJH HULU I’PE T’OJH

WIT ILOTCHE LAFWELTSI

HOPE ELH TOJH PAJHCHE KAMAJH

ICHEFWEN

LHAWLHACHE TOJH YIK

IHI TOJH IHI MAK TOJH ICHE

T’IYALH

WIT TOJHMHE LHAY’AJHPHO

HAL’OY T’ISAN INOMETPHO LACHUWEJ

HOPE MAK TOJH HOTEHEN HAN’ONHI

LAPAK TEMCHE HAL’OY KAHEPELH

TAÑHI LHELE

LAT’UTLE TIPOTSINPE

TOIHONA OLETSJH TS’ILEY

TAK’EFWIPE WIT T’ESEY

TEMLO MAK TOJH ICHE

TEJCHE OYTAJH MAK TOJH TEMEJ

TAÑHI LHELE

TAMENEJ TONTICHENCHE MAK TOJH ILOY

MOLHYEJ INWOK

MOLHYEJ INOT

MOLHYEJ HEPEL

MOLHYEJ MAK TOJH TONTIKNA

↳ LISTEN TO THE POET READING IN THE WICHÍ LANGUAGE

TO BELONG TO THE FOREST 

To belong to the forest

is to carry the trail’s dust upon your skin

and to feel that every root

is an old kin who still teaches you.

It is to walk slowly,

for here, time does not race

but breathes.

And in each gasp,

the spirit of the trees speaks—

the invisible guardians,

the voices dwelling in the cool shade.

To belong to the forest

is to have a heart woven

from chaguar fibers—

firm yet flexible,

capable of sustaining life

even when it’s painful.

To belong to the forest

is to remember that everything is alive:

air,

water,

darkness,

dreams.

HAWESIFWAS

THA ICHOJHLHAMCHE LAKHAJHÑHAYAJH

HOTE TOTTEY HIW’ENHI

TOJH ILOTA HOPE TOJHMHE LHAJH LATESA.

LHAMIL T’EYA MAK TOJH TOKNIT’EYAYA

Y’ITPE TOJH INATHAJH HAL’OWULEY

FWENCHEY INEKWEPHO TOJH LHAM N’OLA

MAK HANA ITSEPYENCHE TOW’ATSHANCHEYAJH

.

ICHEKFWI HEPELH TOJH IS

HAL’OY TOJH WEWFPE

INWOK HAPITSAJHICHE WIT HAT’ENHICHE

TEJCHE NIPITAJHA TOJH N’OLA

NICHOTLO INWOKMHE TOLHCHE TAÑHI

MATTOJH TAKHAJHAY

W’ENHI LHAMEJ PELHAYMHE.

TOWEHEY TOJH LALEMSAS

LHAMIL LACHEFWENYAJH

HIN’OLTEJ LATETNHAY

ICHE TOJH IHI NOTMHE

WIT HAN’ONHICHE LAN’OYIJ

THA IWU CHUWESHA

TUK HOPE NILOWKYALHI

T’EYA TOJH T’IWINLHI

TOJHMHE TACH’AWHIYA

LHICHEFWENEJ MAK TOJH ICHE

TUK HOPE HIP’ETHAT

ISTAKEJ LAN’OYIJ

TOJH IYEJ T’ISAN 

WIT LHOY’A LACHUWEJ

LITTLE GUARDIANS MASTERS

Inadvertently

Invisible

They carry an ancient nobility

that is heard with the heart.

They take care of all the world forgets.

The brilliance of dawn on the leaves

presence of the wakening birds

balance that sustains all

lives.

They inhabit soft tree-filled 

shadows, thick with leaves

the unheard of glance of the wind.

Light

like a breeze

their spirit is stronger

than any storm.

Tiny grand noblefolk

who teach without words

speak with signs

with movements of water

with subtle steps.

To respect them is to walk protected.

To listen to them is to learn the language of the world.

To forget them, is to lose the way

that unites body

and soul.

INWOK TOJH TOT’IÑNHUPWU

INWOK TOJH YISTHU TAÑHI

ICHOJHLHAMCHE TOWEHEY LHAÑHI

LHOMTES TOJH NIN’OLACHE

TOJH IYEJ, THONHOY HAN’ONHIYA

AHOPE TOLHOMTES, T’ISAN NIN’OLA

APOSET, ACHUS PITSAJHCHE

TOIHANEJ, HAN’ONHI THA LAHESEK IYEJ

TOLHAMIL TOJH INAMEJ 

MESSENGER WIND

Wind that passes through the forest

messenger of deities

you bring rumors of the invisible

the secrets of the ancients.

Word without reflection.

Song and whistle.

The invisible remembers

its covenants with us.

PELE TATELHUY

KATETSEL HOTEWUYE TOTTELHUY

ITETSHAN TO’ELH N’OYIJ TOJH HUNATSI

HOTE WICHI ITETSHAN

NITOWFLESHEJ TOJH ISI

ELH TOJH LHUKWE P’ANTE

W’ENTUK HITS’ILAK LHAMEJ

PELEL’IÑNI ITSUK NILHUKEJ LAHANYAJH

THE EYES OF THE SKY

Awake

the stars are eyes

they watch the steps of humans at night.

Wichí people lift their gaze

and recognize in their glow

the presence of those who came before.

No one is alone–

the sky holds our memory.

FOR MORE ABOUT CAMILO BALLENA AND THE WICHÍ LANGUAGE

• “Looking after language”, Conicet, 2015. 
• Listen to Los de SIP’OHI, author’s music band in wichí 

FOR MORE ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS

Original poetry in Spanish and Wichí © Camilo Ballena – Siwar Mayu, October 2026

Introduction and selection © Violeta Percia y Diego Antico

Translation from Spanish © Lorrie Jayne and Juan G. Sánchez Martínez

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