“They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds”

“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds” is a proverbial political saying that has been printed on many posters. “They tried to bury me. They didn’t know I was a seed” is another version that has also been printed on many posters.
 
Macedonian Heritage
Dinos Christianopoulos (Konstantinos Dimitriadis; b. Thessaloniki, 1931) is a poet, scholar and literary critic. In 1958 he founded the literary journal “Diagonal”, which he continued to publish until 1983. The journal acted as a greenhouse for contemporary poets and writers. In 1962 he started Diagonal Publications.
 
J. H. Fearless
UPDATE: Source found! “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
November 24, 2014
UPDATE (Jan 12 2015): The source of this quote has been discovered! It appears to have been written by Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos. As a lyrical voice for the homosexual community in the 20th century, Mr. Christianopoulos has endured many instances where his work has been diminished or overlooked. Luckily he has a friend and supporter named Christos Paridis, who spotted this image and wrote to me with the original source.
 
what you didn;t do to bury me
but you forgot that I was a seed
 
These lines were written in the 1970s, and were directed at the literary community that had marginalized Christianopoulos’ writing. True enough, the poem was a seed, destined to sprout. Within a few decades, this phrase was picked up by the Mexican counterculture, written as
 
Quisieron enterrarnos, pero se les olvido que somos semillas.
 
That’s how I came across it, on this Reddit thread. According to posters there, it’s been in use for many years in the Zapatista movement, and has come back into frequent use among protesters in recent civil unrest.
 
YouTube
They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds. Ayotzinapa 43.
UPEACE Cinema and Human Rights Initiative
Published on Dec 11, 2014
On September 26th, 2014, 43 students from the rural teacher-training school “Escuela Normal Rural Isidro Burgos de Ayotzinapa” were abducted by the Mexican police in Iguala and delivered to organised crime agents who, according to the authorities, murdered them and burned their bodies. Only the remains of Alexander Mora Venancio have been found, but all the other bodies have yet to be identified.
   
reddit
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” - This “Mexican Proverb” turns out to have been written by a homoerotic Greek poet in the 1970s. (self.quotes)
submitted January 12, 2015 by jessicathehun
I found this quote on Reddit several months ago and made it into an image - but then I heard from a friend of the original author, Dinos Christianopoulos. Here is my post with more information. Original: “what didn’t you do to bury me / but you forgot that I was a seed”
 
Twitter
Quotes
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“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” - Mexican Proverb
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10:00 AM - 1 Nov 2015