By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

ROSSANA Camarena, a poet from Mexico, posted an urgent call on her Facebook timeline:

“I appeal to your sorority to take a few minutes and read this friend’s testimony. It is important and VERY necessary that if any of you have experienced something like this let me know INBOX. It is not possible to tolerate such deception, let alone continue to let this person who is pointed out to remain a representative of a global movement for peace and women’s rights, himself being a stalker. PLEASE let’s support and show that if we let the world change, change must start for US.”

The friend she is referring to is Bárbara Oaxaca, who posted earlier about her nine-year affair (2011-July 2020) with Yuri Germán Zambrano Rodriguez (a.k.a. You Ri Zzam), President of the World Festival of Poetry (WFP) and its feminist arm, the World Poetic Front for Defending Women’s Rights (WM).

Barbara’s post was lengthy, a total of 1,395 words, describing in detail about the affair. She claimed that Yuri lied about his circumstances, that he had no partner, had no children when he professed his love for her. Barbara believed and loved him dearly:

“I trusted him. For love. That’s the most painful thing: that they take advantage of the holiest substance of the universe, love.”

For nine years, she said, Yuri never opened up about his private life, nor any of his personal spaces, and this made her feel marginalized. Yuri made a reconciliatory move in March 2021, but she no longer trusted him, and began to search the internet about his circumstances and found Yuri’s wife and children. She was utterly devastated. She felt awkward and felt like “the other”, “the mistress”, a role that dishonored her moral convictions. Worse, she felt she had wronged another woman who had done nothing wrong to her, to whom she offered an apology:

“He lied to me and I believed him. If I had known that you and your children existed, I would never have started a relationship with him. My disrespect to you was unintentional. With my heart in my hand I ask you to excuse me.”

She concluded:

 This man has no respect for love. This man, in love, doesn’t respect women. This man wasn’t taught to have limits regarding his wish. He has no ethics or honor in love… I just feel that, for betrayal and lie, plainly, my love was mistreated and betrayed and made fun of me. That’s where the devastation is…. Yuri Zambrano will continue to host festivals around the world. Tireless as it is, will continue to call on poetry to defend the most noble causes for the underdogs and the vulnerable, for women! But in his private life, where hardly anyone sees him, he mistreats love and takes advantage of the vulnerability of a woman in love. He cheats and makes fun. Trample on trust and love.”

This is one story often told. There are many Barbaras among women, vulnerable and in love, abused by the Yuris of the world who advocate to protect them.

Because of her open letter, more women surfaced, sharing the same “love” experiences with him, slowly exposing his multiple, simultaneous relationships and totally eroding his credibility to lead a “worldwide” movement to protect women’s rights.

No poetry there. Only opportunism. Shame.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments