Genesis
Memory of Fire, Volume One
Eduardo Galeano
“I believe in memory not as a place of arrival, but as point of departure—a catapult throwing you into present times, allowing you to imagine the future instead of accepting it. It would be absolutely impossible for me to have any connection with history if history were just a collection of dead people, dead names, dead facts. That’s why I wrote Memory of Fire in the present tense, trying to keep alive everything that happened and allow it to happen again, as soon as the reader reads it.”
EDUARDO GALEANO
Contents
Preface
First Voices
The Creation
Time
The Sun and the Moon
The Clouds
The Wind
The Rain
The Rainbow
Day
Night
The Stars
The Milky Way
The Evening Star
Language
Fire
The Forest
The Cedar
The Guaiacum Tree
Colors
Love
The Rivers and the Sea
The Tides
Snow
The Flood
The Tortoise
The Parrot
The Hummingbird
The Night Bird (Urutaú)
The Ovenbird
The Crow
The Condor
The Jaguar
The Bear
The Crocodile
The Armadillo
The Rabbit
The Snake
The Frog
The Bat
Mosquitos
Honey
Seeds
Corn
Tobacco
Maté
Cassava
The Potato
The Kitchen
Music
Death
Resurrection
Magic
Laughter
Fear
Authority
Power
War
Parties
Conscience
The Sacred City
Pilgrims
The Promised Land
Dangers
The Spider Web
The Prophet
Old New World
1492: The Ocean Sea The Sun Route to the Indies
1492: Guanahaní Columbus
1493: Barcelona Day of Glory
1493: Rome The Testament of Adam
1493: Huexotzingo Where Is the Truth? Where Are the Roots?
1493: Pasto Everybody Pays Taxes
1493: Santa Cruz Island An Experience of Miquele de Cuneo from Savona
1495: Salamanca The First Word from America
1495: La Isabela Caonabó
1496: La Concepción Sacrilege
1498: Santo Domingo Earthly Paradise
The Language of Paradise
1499: Granada Who Are Spaniards?
1500: Florence Leonardo
1506: Valladolid The Fifth Voyage
1506: Tenochtitlán The Universal God
1511: Guauravo River Agüeynaba
1511: Aymaco Becerrillo
1511: Yara Hatuey
1511: Santo Domingo The First Protest
1513: Cuareca Leoncico
1513: Gulf of San Miguel Balboa
1514: Sinú River The Summons
1514: Santa María del Darién For Love of Fruit
1515: Antwerp Utopia
1519: Frankfurt Charles V
1519: Acla Pedrarias
1519: Tenochtitlán Portents of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air
1519: Cempoala Cortés
1519: Tenochtitlán Moctezuma
1519: Tenochtitlán The Capital of the Aztecs
Aztec Song of the Shield
1520: Teocalhueyacan “Night of Sorrow”
1520: Segura de la Frontera The Distribution of Wealth
1520: Brussels Dürer
1520: Tlaxcala Toward the Reconquest of Tenochtitlán
1521: Tlatelolco Sword of Fire
1521: Tenochtitlán The World Is Silenced in the Rain
1521: Florida Ponce de León
1522: Highways of Santo Domingo Feet
1522: Seville The Longest Voyage Ever Made
1523: Cuzco Huaina Cápac
1523: Cuauhcapolca The Chief’s Questions
1523: Painala Malinche
1524: Quetzaltenango The Poet Will Tell Children the Story of This Battle
1524: Utatlán The Vengeance of the Vanquished
1524: Scorpion Islands Communion Ceremony
1525: Tuxkahá Cuauhtémoc
1526: Toledo The American Tiger
1528: Madrid To Loosen the Purse Strings
1528: Tumbes Day of Surprises
1528: Bad Luck Island “People Very Generous with What They Have …”
1531: Orinoco River Diego de Ordaz
Piaroa People’s Song About the White Man
1531: Mexico City The Virgin of Guadelupe
1531: Santo Domingo A Letter
1531: Serrana Island The Castaway and the Other
1532: Cajamarca Pizarro
1533: Cajamarca The Ransom
1533: Cajamarca Atahualpa
1533: Xaquixaguana The Secret
1533: Cuzco The Conquerors Enter the Sacred City
1533: Riobamba Alvarado
1533: Quito This City Kills Itself
1533: Barcelona The Holy Wars
1533: Seville The Treasure of the Incas
1534: Riobamba Inflation
1535: Cuzco The Brass Throne
1536: Mexico City Motolinía
1536: Machu Picchu Manco Inca
1536: Valley of Ulúa Gonzalo Guerrero
1536: Culiacán Cabeza de Vaca
1537: Rome The Pope Says They Are Like Us
1538: Santo Domingo The Mirror
1538: Valley of Bogota Blackbeard, Redbeard, Whitebeard
1538: Masaya Volcano Vulcan, God of Money
1541: Santiago de Chile Inés Suárez
1541: Rock of Nochistlán Never
1541: Old Guatemala City Beatriz
1541: Cabo Frío At Dawn, the Cricket Sang
1542: Quito El Dorado
1542: Conlapayara The Amazons
1542: Iguazú River In Broad Daylight
1543: Cubagua The Pearl Fishers
1544: Machu Picchu The Stone Throne
War Song of the Incas
1544: Campeche Las Casas
1544: Lima Carvajal
1545: Royal City of Chiapas The Bad News Comes from Valladolid
1546: Potosí The Silver of Potosí
1547: Valparaíso The Parting
Song of Nostalgia, from the Spanish Songbook
1548: Xaquixaguana The Battle of Xaquixaguana Is Over
1548: Xaquixaguana The Executioner
1548: Xaquixaguana On Cannibalism in America
1548: Guanajuato Birth of the Guanajuato Mines
1549; La Serena The Return
The Last Time
1552: Valladolid He Who Always Took the Orders Now Gives Them
1553: The Banks of the San Pedro River Miguel
A Dream of Pedro de Valdivia
1553: Tucapel Lautaro
1553: Tucapel Valdivia
1553: Potosí Beauty and the Mayor
To the Strains of the Barrel Organ a Blind Man Sings to Her Who Sleeps Alone
1553: Potosí The Mayor and the Gallant
1554: Cuzco The Mayor and the Ears
1554: Lima The Mayor and the Bill Collector
1554: Mexico City Sepúlveda
1556: Asunción, Paraguay Conquistadoras
; 1556: Asunción, Paraguay “The Paradise of Mahomet”
Womanizer Song, from the Spanish Songbook
1556: La Imperial Mariño de Lobera
1558: Cañete The War Goes On
Araucanian Song of the Phantom Horseman
1558: Michmaloyan The Tzitzimes
1558: Yuste Who Am I? What Have I Been?
1559: Mexico City The Mourners
Advice of the Old Aztec Wise Men
1560: Huexotzingo The Reward
1561: Villa de los Bergantines The First Independence of America
1561: Nueva Valencia del Rey Aguirre
1561: Neuva Valencia del Rey From Lope de Aguirre’s Letter to King Philip II
1561. Barquisimeto Order Restored
1562: Maní The Fire Blunders
1563: Arauco Fortress The History That Will Be
1564: Plymouth Hawkins
1564: Bogotá Vicissitudes of Married Life
1565. Road to Lima The Spy
1565: Yauyoa That Stone Is Me
Prayer of the Incas, Seeking God
1565: Mexico City Ceremony
1566: Madrid The Fanatic of Human Dignity
1566: Madrid Even If You Lose, It’s Still Worthwhile
1568: Los Teques Guaicaipuro
1568; Mexico City The Sons of Cortés
1569: Havana St. Simon Against the Ants
1571: Mexico City Thou Shalt Inform On Thy Neighbor
1571: Madrid Who Is Guilty, Criminal or Witness?
1572: Cuzco Túpac Amaru I
The Vanquished Believe:
1574: Mexico City The First Auto-da-Fé in Mexico
1576: Guanajuato The Monks Say:
1576: Xochimilco The Apostle Santiago versus the Plague
1577: Xochimilco St. Sebastian versus the Plague
1579: Quito Son of Atahualpa
1580: Buenos Aires The Founders
1580: London Drake
1582: Mexico City What Color Is a Leper’s Skin?
1583: Copacabana God’s Aymara Mother
1583: Santiago de Chile He Was Free for a While
1583: Tlatelolco Sahagiún
1583: Ácoma The Stony Kingdom of Cíbola
Night Chant, a Navajo Poem
1586: Cauri The Pestilence
1588: Quito Grandson of Atahualpa
1588: Havana St. Martial versus the Ants
1589: Cuzco He Says He Had the Sun
1592: Lima An Auto-da-Fé in Lima
1593: Guarapari Anchieta
1596: London Raleigh
1597: Seville A Scene in Jail
1598: Potosí History of Floriana Rosales, Virtuous Woman of Potosí (Abbreviated Version of the Chronicle by Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela)
Spanish Couplets to Be Sung and Danced
1598: Panama City Times of Sleep and Fate
1599: Quito The Afro-Indians of Esmeraldas
1599: Chagres River The Wise Don’t Talk
1599: La Imperial Flaming Arrows
1599: Santa Maria They Make War to Make Love
1600: Santa Marta They Had a Country
Techniques of Hunting and Fishing
1600: Potosí The Eighth Wonder of the World
Prophecies
Ballad of Cuzco
1600: Mexico City Carriages
1601: Valladolid Quevedo
1602: Recife First Expedition Against Palmares
1603: Rome The Four Parts of the World
1603: Santiago de Chile The Pack
1605: Lima The Night of the Last Judgment
1607: Seville The Strawberry
1608: Puerto Príncipe Silvestre de Balboa
1608: Seville Mateo Alemán
1608: Córdoba The Inca Garcilaso
1609: Santiago de Chile How to Behave at the Table
1611: Yarutini The Idol-Exterminator
1612: San Pedro de Omapacha The Beaten Beats
1613: London Shakespeare
1614: Lima Minutes of the Lima Town Council: Theater Censorship Is Born
1614: Lima Indian Dances Banned in Peru
1615: Lima Guamán Poma
1616: Madrid Cervantes
1616: Potosí Portraits of a Procession
1616: Santiago Papasquiaro Is the Masters’ God the Slaves’ God?
1617: London Whiffs of Virginia in the London Fog
1618: Lima Small World
1618: Luanda Embarcation
1618: Lima Too Dark
1620: Madrid The Devil’s Dances Come from America
1622: Seville Rats
1624: Lima People for Sale
1624: Lima Black Flogs Black
1624: Lima The Devil at Work
1624: Seville Last Chapter of the “Life of the Scoundrel”
1624: Mexico City A River of Anger
1625: Mexico City How Do You Like Our City?
1625: Samayac Indian Dances Banned in Guatemala
1626: Potosí A Wrathful God
1628: Chiapas Chocolate and the Bishop
1628: Madrid Blue Blood for Sale
Song About the Indies Hand, Sung in Spain
1629: Las Cangrejeras Bascuñán
1629: Banks of the Bío-Bío River Putapichun
1629: Banks of River Imperial Maulicán
1629: Repocura Region To Say Good-Bye
1630: Motocintle They Won’t Betray Their Dead
1631: Old Guatemala A Musical Evening at the Concepción Convent
Popular Couplets of the Bashful Lover
1633: Pinola Gloria in Excelsis Deo
1634: Madrid Who Was Hiding Under Your Wife’s Cradle?
1636: Quito The Third Half
1637: Mouth of the River Sucre Dieguillo
1637: Massachusetts Bay “God is an Englishman,”
1637: Mystic Fort From the Will of John Underhill, Puritan of Connecticut, Concerning a Massacre of Pequot Indians
1639: Lima Martín de Porres
1639: San Miguel de Tucumán From a Denunciation of the Bishop of Tucumán, Sent to the Inquisition Tribunal in Lima
1639: Potosí Testament of a Businessman
The Indians Say:
1640: Sāo Salvador de Bahia Vieira
1641: Lima Avila
1641: Mbororé The Missions
1641: Madrid Eternity Against History
1644: Jamestown Opechancanough
1645: Quito Mariana de Jesús
1645: Potosí Story of Estefanía, Sinful Woman of Potosí (Abbreviation of Chronicle by Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela)
1647: Santiago de Chile Chilean Indians’ Game Banned
1648: Olinda Prime Cannon Fodder
1649: Ste. Marie des Hurons The Language of Dreams
An Iroquois Story
Song About the Song of the Iroquois
1650: Mexico City The Conquerors and the Conquered
From the Náhuatl Song on the Transience of Life
1654: Oaxaca Medicine and Witchcraft
1655: San Miguel de Nepantla Juana at Four
1656: Santiago de la Vega Gage
1658: San Miguel de Nepantla Juana at Seven
Juana Dreams
1663: Old Guatemala Enter the Printing Press
1663: The Banks of the Paraíba River Freedom
Song of Palmares
1663: Serra da Barriga Palmares
1665: Madrid Charles II
1666: New Amsterdam New York
1666: London The White Servants
1666: Tortuga Island The Pirates’ Devotions
1667: Mexico City Juana at Sixteen
1668: Tortuga Island The Dogs
1669: Town of Gibraltar All the Wealth of the World
1669: Maracaibo The Broken Padlock
1670: Lima “Mourn for us,”
1670: San Juan Atitlán An Intruder on the Altar
1670: Masaya “The Idiot”
1
670: Cuzco Old Moley
1671: Panama City On Punctuality in Appointments
1672: London The White Man’s Burden
Mandingo People’s Song of the Bird of Love
1674: Port Royal Morgan
1674: Potosí Claudia the Witch
1674: Yorktown The Olympian Steeds
1676: Valley of Connecticut The Ax of Battle
1676: Plymouth Metacom
1677: Old Road Town Death Here, Rebirth There
1677: Pôrto Calvo The Captain Promises Lands, Slaves, and Honors
1678: Recife Ganga Zumba
Yoruba Spell Against the Enemy
1680: Santa Fe, New Mexico Red Cross and White Cross
1681: Mexico City Juana at Thirty
1681: Mexico City Sigüenza y Góngora
1682: Accra All Europe Is Selling Human Flesh
1682: Remedios By Order of Satan
1682: Remedios But They Stay On
1682: Remedios By Order of God
1688: Havana By Order of the King
1691: Remedios Still They Don’t Move
1691: Mexico City Juana at Forty
1691: Placentia Adario, Chief of the Huron Indians, Speaks to Baron de Lahontan, French Colonizer in Newfoundland
1692: Salem Village The Witches of Salem
1692: Cuápulo Nationalization of Colonial Art
1693: Mexico City Juana at Forty-Two
1693: Santa Fe, New Mexico Thirteen Years of Independence
Song of the New Mexican Indians to the Portrait That Escapes from the Sand
1694: Macacos The Last Expedition Against Palmares
Lament of the Azande People
1695: Serra Dois Irmāos Zumbí
1695: São Salvador de Bahia The Capital of Brazil
1696: Regla Black Virgin, Black Goddess
1697: Cap Français Ducasse
1699: Madrid Bewitched
1699: Macouba A Practical Demonstration
1700: Ouro Prêto All Brazil to the South
1700: St. Thomas Island The Man Who Makes Things Talk
Bantu People’s Song of the Fire
1700: Madrid Penumbra of Autumn
The Sources
Index
Preface
I was a wretched history student. History classes were like visits to the waxworks or the Region of the Dead. The past was lifeless, hollow, dumb. They taught us about the past so that we should resign ourselves with drained consciences to the present: not to make history, which was already made, but to accept it. Poor History had stopped breathing: betrayed in academic texts, lied about in classrooms, drowned in dates, they had imprisoned her in museums and buried her, with floral wreaths, beneath statuary bronze and monumental marble.
Perhaps Memory of Fire can help give her back breath, liberty, and the word.
Through the centuries, Latin America has been despoiled of gold and silver, nitrates and rubber, copper and oil: its memory has also been usurped. From the outset it has been condemned to amnesia by those who have prevented it from being. Official Latin American history boils down to a military parade of bigwigs in uniforms fresh from the dry-cleaners. I am not a historian. I am a writer who would like to contribute to the rescue of the kidnapped memory of all America, but above all of Latin America, that despised and beloved land: I would like to talk to her, share her secrets, ask her of what difficult clays she was born, from what acts of love and violation she comes.