The Memory of Fire Trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind

The Memory of Fire Trilogy

Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind

Eduardo Galeano

Translated by Cedric Belfrage

Contents

Genesis

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

1560: Michoacán Vasco de Quiroga

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

1630: Lima María, Queen of the Boards

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

1670: 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

Faces and Masks

Preface

Promise of America

1701: Salinas Valley The Skin of God

1701: Sāo Salvador de Bahia Voice of America

1701: Paris Temptation of America

Sentinel of America

1701: Ouro Prêto Conjuring Tricks

1703: Lisbon Gold, Passenger in Transit

1709: The Juan Fernández Islands Robinson Crusoe

1711: Paramaribo The Silent Women

They Carry Life in Their Hair

The Maroon

1711: Murrí They Are Never Alone

1711: Saint Basil’s Refuge The Black King, the White Saint, and His Sainted Wife

The Maríapalito

1712: Santa Marta From Piracy to Contraband

1714: Ouro Prêto The Mine Doctor

1714: Vila Nova do Príncipe Jacinta

1716: Potosí Holguín

1716: Cuzco The Image Makers

Mary, Mother Earth

Pachamama

Mermaids

1717: Quebec The Man Who Didn’t Believe in Winter

1717: Dupas Island The Founders

Portrait of the Indians

Songs of the Chippewa Indians in the Great Lakes Region

1718: Sāo José del Rei The Pillory

1719: Potosí The Plague

1721: Zacatecas To Eat God

If You Inadvertently Lose Your Soul

1726: Montevideo Bay Montevideo

1733: Ouro Prêto Fiestas

1736: Saint John’s, Antigua Flare-ups

1738: Trelawny Town Cudjoe