From the book "Mysteries of America"

First part of 

Chapter 1

Idols, gods and devils

Even if you don't see them, they are there.

Since you arrive in Chontales, they look at you. Most of the stone idols are very well hidden among a multitude of blocks scattered along the mountain range.

They are innumerable. No one knows how many are still standing up through the rough surface of the mountains.

However, if you want to see them, you must go to Juigalpa.

Juigalpa is the capital of the department of Chontales in the Republic of Nicaragua. It is a population of some tens of thousands of inhabitants located at the foot of the mountain range of the Amerrique mountain range. It was founded about three centuries ago and since then it has been transformed into the main commercial center of the mountainous country of Chontales. Although it is a relatively small city, it is a very busy place, with people transporting agricultural products or animals from the nearby fifths and ranches, or from people coming from more distant cities, such as Matagalpa, Granada and even the capital of the country, the metropolitan city of Managua.

Gregorio Aguilar

Gregorio Aguilar was a Chontaleño and knew very well where to find the stone idols. He discovered his existence in the mountains during his youth.

Since then he dedicated much of his life to collect them and install them in a small museum that managed to

build with great effort in the heart of the city. Gregorio traveled through the Sierra with his high school students and some colleagues, and for a little over a decade he managed to find many unique objects, including about fifty stone statues .

Some years later, on one of his usual trips, when Aguilar was carrying a large idol that had been found a while ago, an accident occurred.

According to some witnesses, Gregorio lost control of his vehicle, it overturned, and the stone idol fell on him. He died instantly.

That day, the city of Juigalpa, which was preparing for a big party, dressed in mourning. Since then, the name of Gregorio Aguilar is pronounced by the juigalpeños with the deepest respect.

Thirty years later, the Juigalpa Museum, baptized Gregorio Aguilar, has been transformed into a growing tourist attraction and stone idols are a symbol of the city. However, very little is known of the women and men of flesh and blood that sculpted the stone figures, of the ancient town that accompanies us, in some way, when we go through the anfractuosities of the mountains.

Words, gods and devils

How was it possible? In a few years, just a few decades, numerous peoples and ancient cultures were buried by an avalanche difficult to understand.

From the lands of the albatross, in the southern reaches, to the evergreen rainforests, with their meandering rivers; from the steep peaks, where the condor nests and the snow remains embedded in the gloomy walls of the hills; to the shores of palms and crabs, the American world seemed paralyzed against the advance of those armored and aggressive men. They brought fierce dogs, horses, iron and guns. They were thirsty for gold and power. They seemed not to know mercy. They came without women. They arrived embarked on strange ships of ropes, wood and canvases, they spoke an incomprehensible language, they raised curious banners and everywhere they nailed their crosses to take possession of territories and people.

They did not ask for the native names of the land. When asked they were not understood. When they were answered they did not understand. Deep down they didn't care about ancestral names. They replaced them with their own whenever they could. And so it was.

A world of places renamed with foreign sounds.

Identities lost, taken away, overwhelmed.

We do not know if there was a denomination for the entire continent. A name that could identify us from south to north, from east to west, up and down, from the seas to the desert. Today, we are still looking for him: Abya Yala, Tortuga Island, the home of Pachamama, America. Perhaps that designation we seek has never existed. We do not know.  (to be continued)

(a) Chapter 1, Misterios of America, D.Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones