For the last few weeks, Deceleration has been stealing away to the foot of an elder oak tree beside the Blue Hole within the sacred headwaters of the San Antonio River. We’ve dipped out upon the river itself below Padre Park, which is still largely fed by recycled water as pumping to feed our expanding city a hundred years ago began to impact the link between the waters below and the waters on the surface. We were there to document a song of Indigenous cultural survivance by our friend (and calendar editor), Ceiba ili, in a time of intense anti-immigrant and anti-Indigenous actions in the United States by a rising autocratic regime. The song ‘Sunak,’ or ‘Awaken’ in English, hearkens to the growing revival of Indigenous and Tribal identities of so many long homogenized on U.S. Census forms as “Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.”
The message is both a celebration and a refusal to bend to the toxic political scapegoating and violence attacking peoples who have lived in the lands around greater San Antonio—and their long-migrating relatives to the south—for longer than there has been a city here.
Migration is a terrestrial and aquatic dance of the Earth, a “sacred movement,” as ili writes below, performed across these reaches for millennia, long before the lands here first heard Spanish or English. Before the razor wire and detention centers.
‘Sunak’ draws on the language of the ‘Jaguar People,’ or Lenca of today’s Honduras, in particular the dwindling dialect of Kotik, which Ceiba has been learning as part of her study of indigenous spiritual systems of that region. As ili writes in her artist statement about the song: “The lyrics say the language has completed its life cycle and is now resurrected by being spoken again. Through this resurrection, Sunak becomes a vessel for memory and continuity.”
The flute, the groove, the contributions of the masterful Jai Roots and Eric Rosales, give the tune a buoyantly infectious flavor. Better yet: It is a jam with a message for our time. Deceleration was honored to participate in the creation of the video documenting its performance here in the lands and waters that continue to hold us, in spite of the abuses we heap upon them. Anytime music can redirect our collective gaze to the work of cultural and Earth repair is a good day worth celebrating, as we do with this release.
Some of the video’s imagery of flags and crosses was shot at the South San Antonio memorial dedicated to the 53 immigrants who died while locked in a tractor trailer in the summer of 2022. People can support the caretakers of that memorial by donating to their GoFundMe.
Artist Statement
Sunak (“Awaken/Despertar”)—by Ceiba ili, Featuring Jai Roots and Eric Rosales
Sunak is a call, a song rooted in the truth that migration is not a crime, but a birthright of all living beings. This music video lifts up the sacred movement of life itself: humans, birds, seeds, winds, and waters, all deserving the freedom to journey toward safety, sustenance, and dignity.
Through rivers that remember and forests that breathe, Sunak honors Mother Earth as healer. Her elements cleanse not only the body but the spirit, reminding us that personal healing and planetary healing are intertwined. This piece is both prayer and uprising, asking us to protect what is left and to restore what has been harmed.
The song speaks in Kotik, the language of the Lenca people of Honduras. Once declared extinct, Kotik now returns, not as a relic, but as a living rhythm. The lyrics say the language has completed its life cycle and is now resurrected by being spoken again. Through this resurrection, Sunak becomes a vessel for memory and continuity.
This work asks us to awaken, to remember that we as humans are not at the top of any chain, but part of a sacred web. Not owners, not bystanders, but protectors.
The visuals by director Greg Harman bring this message to life with remarkable authenticity. His work captures the essence of Sunak in a way that feels grounded and sincere, not over-produced, but alive and real, like the landscapes and spirits it portrays. His eye allowed the story to breathe, to be witnessed in its natural beauty and emotional truth.
Sunak is an offering to the spirit of movement, to the dignity of all life, and to the ancestral ways that still guide us. — Ceiba ili
Production Pics
‘Sunak’ Lyrics (English)
Sunak eh (x4)
Awaken eh
Kunan tu? Hey / Kunan pil? Hey (X3)
Who am I? / Who are we?
Musu motik musu motik shê (x3)
Heal heart; heal well, heart
Sunak sunak sunak eh (x3)
Awaken, awaken, awaken, awaken eh
Sana mi corazón / Mina lum sana mi corazón (x2)
Heal my heart / Mother Earth, heal my heart
Pachamama sana mi corazón
Mother Earth, heal my heart
De los desiertos vienen llegando / Con esperanza, toda mi gente
From the deserts they are arriving / With hope, all my people
Es el derecho de los seres vivos a volar, emigrar; vivir dignamente
It is the right of all living beings to fly, to migrate; to live with dignity
Wak sarín, semilla semilla
A being, a seed, a seed, a seed
Norap ta irata shawa korta / Shawa shawa korta
Plant a seed today and the milpa will be there tomorrow to nourish
Tolo puki nap latam / Lamarawak
Ancestors are you here? / Embrace me/us
Kotik nan enmi / Kotik, kotik nan enmi / Quiero escuchar kotik enmi
I want to hear Lenca / Kotik, I want to hear Lenca / I want to hear Lenca
Yuka lolta enciende el fuego interior, Prende la lengua con el aliento / De este idioma muerto / Ciclos de vida resucitó
Ignite the inner fire / Ignite the tongue with the breath / Of this dead language / Life cycles, it has resurrected
Sana mi corazón / Mina lum sana mi corazón (x2)
Heal my heart / Earth, heal my heart
Pachamama sana mi corazón
Mother Earth, heal my heart
‘Sunak’ Lyrics (Español)
Sunak eh (x3)
Despierta eh
Kunan tu? Hey / Kunan pil? Hey
¿Quién soy? / ¿Quiénes somos?
Musu motik musu motik shê (x3)
Sana corazón, sana bien corazón
Sunak sunak sunak sunak eh (x3)
Despierta, despierta, despierta, despierta eh
Sana mi corazón / Mina lum sana mi corazón (x2)
Sana mi corazón / Madre Tierra, sana mi corazón
Pachamama sana mi corazón
Madre Tierra, sana mi corazón
De los desiertos / Vienen llegando / Con esperanza / Toda mi gente
Es el derecho / De los seres vivos / Volar, emigrar / Vivir dignamente
Wak sarín, semilla semilla
Un ser, una semilla, una semilla
Norap ta irata shawa korta / Shawa shawa korta
Planta una semilla hoy y habrá milpa mañana para nutrir
Tolo puki nap latam / Lamarawak
¿Ancestros, están aquí? / Abrácenme
Kotik nan enmi / Kotik, kotik nan enmi / Quiero escuchar kotik enmi
Kotik, quiero escuchar el Lenca / Quiero escuchar el Lenca
Yuka lolta enciende el fuego interior / Prende la lengua con el aliento / De esta lengua muerta / Ciclos de vida resucitó
Sana mi corazón / Mina lum sana mi corazón (x2)
Sana mi corazón / Tierra, sana mi corazón
Pachamama sana mi corazón
Madre Tierra, sana mi corazón
