*Reprinted without permission.

My Wishes for 2015

(Gómez-Peña re-writes his wishes for 2014

Recent portrait of Gómez-Peña by Piero Viti. Taken in

Venice, Italy December 2014

I wish

to live life as if I had no fear, as if there was no war, no danger; as if governments and crime cartels didn’t exist.

I wish

to live life by the strange rules of poetry, performance art & quantum physics.

I wish

that radical tenderness and uncompromising aesthetics remain the driving forces of our performance troupe.

I wish

that all my artist friends find a dignified job closely resembling their dreams and obsessions.

I wish

that all my activist friends find the spiritual strength to continue fighting the necessary fight on all fronts.

I wish

for all migrants to cross the borders they wish to cross successfully & safely.

I wish

that all indigenous people find ways to survive and thrive against all corporate and government odds and monsters.

I wish

for the homeless of the world to find food, shelter, medicine and friendship. These are basic human rights.

I wish

that all my friends and their friends find tender lovers to survive the loneliness of the American night.

I wish

that Obama has an epiphany while taking a shit and remembers who he is, or rather who he could have been.

I wish

for the new pope to continue to become more radicalized and get lost every night in the streets of Vatican City catering to the poor and destitute; to immigrants and sex workers.

I wish

for the prison industry to collapse; for black and Latino youth to find a place of dignity in America.

I wish

for the global project to continue derailing ad nauseam.

I wish

that all the greedy landlords trying to evict the working class and all politicians trying to deport immigrants suddenly wake up with poetic amnesia and an empathetic heart.

I wish

for America to stop fearing otherness and diversity; and for white Americans to become less self-involved, arrogant & entitled.

I wish

for the masterminds and perpetrators of war and violence to experience a daily living and unbearable hell; payback can’t wait for their next reincarnation.

I wish

my mother a smooth journey to the other side. She waited 92 years to make sure that her children and grand children got their shit together.

Now that she is gone, I wish to make peace with my intergalactic orphan-hood and with each of my multiple identities.

I passionately commit to make all these wishes come true, even if only in the realm of imagination, poetry, grassroots activism and art.