Chapter 2

Tempests, Gods and Devils

Translated from "La Mentira del Milenio", D.Anton, Piriguazú Ediciones

The invaders came from the East. They arrived in large ships and occupied the Taino, Carib, Ciboney and Guanatabey Islands. They seized lands and peoples. From the summits of her mountains, Amerrique witnessed  their arrival

“Eighty-eight days had passed and the terrible storm had not left us. I did not see the sun or the stars....my vessels were taking water....the sails torn...people very ill... frequently confessing one another...”   Then   “The storm came back... for nine days I was lost without hope. Never had eyes beheld the sea so high, ugly and foamy...  I paused on that sea turned to blood, boiling like a cauldron over a great fire. Never had the sky been so awful. One day the night burned like an oven and threw flames of lightning ... so furious and frightening that all believed the vessels would be melted...”  and the fatigue was so great  “... that in some the heretical idea took hold  that we were under a spell”

“I am lost.... Isolated in this sorrow, ill, awaiting death every day and surrounded by a million savages, full of cruelty, and our enemies. I do not have a single hair that has not turned grey and my body is sick and worn out.... weep for me whomsoever feels charity, truth and justice.”

Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean-Sea had arrived in Amerrique, the “Land-Where-the-Wind-Blows”.

Amerrique was not only the land of the wind, she was also the Rich Coast, the Costa Rica, or as they say in a local native tongue: Huzgalpa or Huigalpa, the Country of Gold.

Columbus, Vespucci and other Europeans who arrived at her shores were attracted by the shining metal, the abundant gold, originating in the many mines o the interior.

The Admiral himself would say in his Diary of the Fourth Trip:

“The gold is excellent, treasures are made from it,  whomsoever has it can do as he pleases in the world and can send souls to Paradise”.

In this way, a few years after arriving in the country of the Lucayos and the Haiti, the Spaniards went to the Gold Coast and beyond, to the source of the gold, well into the mountains, the ancestral lands of the Amerrique Nation.

The Amerrique people do not exist anymore, the Amerrique mountains today are known as the Cordillera Chontaleña and the gold mines have Spanish names: Santo Domingo and La Libertad.

However, on the tops of Mounts Mombachito and Cuizaltepe, in the middle of the Amerrican Range, the strong cleansing wind persists in blowing and remembering.

Where Are They?

Before it was named  Nicaragua by the mestizos and Cocibolca by the Chorotegas, the great-craddle-lake was known as Ukurikitucara to the ancient people of the land.

Ukurikitucara receives the wind-of-life and her golden sparks from the neighboring highlands of Amerrique. She speaks loudly through her crater mouths in Ometepe and stretches her arms to reach Cariari and Amerisco, beyond the mountains, by the sea.

The riches of the water are protected by one thousand and one sharks with pointed teeth and shiny tails.

Night and day, the spirit of Ukurikitucara, sister of hurricanes lives.

Although many people think that she has no memory, in fact, she remembers every single image mirrored on the waters.

Most specially, she remembers them. The ancient people. The ones who came to her shores with feelings of love and respect, bringing fruit, corn and tobacco.

She knows all too well that one day, very soon, they will return from the fog of time, the sacred idols will stand once more, and the wide, clean sky will again be their temple.

They say that the Amerriques are gone.  That they have disappeared.

However, if you walk attentively throughout the hills and valleys of Amerrique, you can feel it. The Amerriques are still there. In fact, they are everywhere. In the silent rocks. In the steep slopes. In the legendary cliffs. In the hearts of the people of Juigalpa and La Libertad. In all of us if we want to find them.

Some people call them Matagalpans, others Chontales. In fact, there is no difference. The wise people who carved the idols do not need a new name. They have their very old, unique ways of naming themselves. It is just that we still have not found  them out. Maybe we are just beginning to understand. Perhaps, their name is the one we use everyday without even realizing it: America.

 The Devil Has Arrived

The devil has arrived. There is no doubt about it. The news spread throughout the land. The Devil with a pale face and clothes of iron. Those who thought that they were the kind Gods were mistaken. They are really demons who worship those metals that grow in the depth of the Earth. It is rumored that they feed on silver and gold, that they change their iron skin every year and that they do not know what love and tenderness are.

In the entrails of the Andean Plateau, untouched by sunlight and cool breezes, at the bottom of the galleries where silver and tin are extracted, the Quechua and Aymara miners prepare their offerings for the Uncle-Devil, “El Tío Diablo” and for his wife China Supay.

The “Uncle” prefers coca leaves, tobacco and chicha. China Supay likes sugar cane. The Devil and his spouse control the world of metals, from where money comes. That is why everybody knows that “Money is the Devil’s business”. Money is not obtained through work, love or companionship. It is acquired by means of a blood pact with the Devil, the k’araku, a golden contract with the “Uncle”, made only for money.

The Spaniards who conquered this land obtained their fortune in that way. For this reason, they were able to kill hundreds of thousands with impunity and become rich. Pizarro promised to respect Atahualpa’s life but he did not hesitate to kill him. As a reward for his crime he inherited the riches of the Inca Empire. Today the drugdealers who profit by trafficking in human suffering make millions of dollars from the cocaine trade.

The miners who have learned these truths in their own lives, risk cave ins and silicosis, work very hard and produce plenty of metal. In spite of that, they earn very little money, they do not have enough to eat, and no fuel to warm them during the cold Altiplano nights. In the meantime, those who live far away and have never worked in the mines, enjoy the luxurious lifestyles of millionaires.

These inequalities can only be explained through sorcery and sacrifices to the Devil. This is why the “gringos” have so much money. No doubt about it. There is no other logical explanation. These people have obtained the favor of Tio and China Supay.

They Did Not Bring God, But the Devil

The demon of miners has horns like a goat, blood colored eyes, mule ears, two black tusks, and daggers instead of teeth reflecting the very faint light of the galleries. Like the European kings, he has a crown with a twisted poisonous snake wrapped around it. The nations of the Andean plateau have learned their lesson. More than four centuries of oppression and suffering have taught it to them. The conquistadores did not bring God but the Devil. From Oruro to Potosi, the ancient peoples of the mountain and the plateau regularly carry out their diabladas. They don’t forget him in their offerings and rituals.

Outside the mines, in the open air, where the wind blows and the rain and the snow fall, it is Pachamama, the spirit of the Mother Earth, who reigns.

With the help of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, Pachamama allows plants to bloom, crops to ripen and babies to be born.  Pachamama is kind. She has nothing to do with money. Pachamama is Amerrique.

Message from Mancu Inca Yupanquyi

Brothers and sons, I have called you together here over the past few days so that you may see the new kind of people who have come to our country, those bearded ones who are here in this city. Because they told me they were Wiracochas and appeared to be so from their dress, I commanded you to serve and obey them as you would serve my own person... thinking that they were worthy people sent from afar, as they themselves claimed, by Tiqsi Wiraqochan, which is to say by God. But it is clear to me that everything has turned out the very opposite of what I expected, because- know this, my brothers- these people have repeatedly shown since entering my country that they are not the children of Wiracocha but of the devil.[1]

The Cheap Souls of Maranhão

Jesuit Father Antonio Vieira arrived in Maranhão, Brazil, in 1652. His life had been a constant struggle for the freedom of slaves and racial and religious tolerance. Besides the Portuguese tongue, Father Antonio spoke native Tupi, African Kimbundu and several indigenous Amazonian languages. In Maranhão he found a desolate panorama of  native slave exploitation. He did not hesitate to confront the planters and traffickers, reminding them of the Christian principles they claimed to profess.

“At what a different price the devil today buys souls compared to what he offered for them previously!  There is no market in the world where he can get them cheaper than right here in our own land. In the Gospel, he offered all the kingdoms of the world for one soul; in Maranhão the devil does not offer even one-tenth  as much for all the souls. It is not necessary to offer worlds, or kingdoms; it is not necessary to offer cities, towns or villages. All he has to do is offer a couple of Tapuya Indians and he is immediately adored on both knees. What a cheap market! An Indian for a soul! That Indian will be your slave for the few days that he lives but your soul will be a slave for eternity, for as long as God is God. This is the contract that the devil makes with you. Not only do you accept it but you pay him money. Christians, nobles, and people of Maranhão, do you know what God wants of you during Lent?  That you break the chains of injustice and free  the captive and oppressed. These are the sins of Maranhão. This is what God told me to denounce. Christians, God ordered me to explain these matters to you and so I will.  All of you are in mortal sin; all of you live in a state of condemnation; and all of you will go directly to Hell. Indeed, there are many there already and you you will soon join them if you do not change your lives.

“Any man who deprives another of liberty and, being able to restore it, does not do so, is condemned. All or nearly all  are therefore condemned. You will say to me that, even if this was true, you did not think or know about it, and so your good faith will save you. I deny that. You did think and  know about it just as you think and know about it now and if you did not think or know about it, you ought to have done so. Some are condemned by their knowledge, others for their doubt, and still others for their ignorance...”[1]

A few years later, in 1661, Vieira was expelled from Brazil and condemned to prison by the Inquisition due to his “egalitarian heresies”.  When he was released from prison in 1667, he reinitiated his struggle for the rights of slaves until his death on July 18, 1697.