6.14.2008

June 12

The last three days of class, Chela and I are watching Bolivian films. One of them is Los Andes no Creen en Dios. This was a beautiful movie about mining days in Bolivia. The cinematography was very good and the scences of the sierra, the altiplano, and the salt flats of Bolivia are stunning. The movie is so named because in the Andes, indigenous people do not believe in a ¨Western¨God. They worship the Pachamama (Mother Earth), spirits of places and things, and a god that we could only equate with the devil. If these spirits do not recieve their due or are not placated, things will go badly for those people on and in the mountain. So, the story goes: Westerners have come to take advantage of the mountains which seem to be made of gold and silver. But they do not know the ways of this world, and in the end, Pachamama takes revenge. Those characters who can´t adapt and don´t realize that this is not their place in the world, condemn themselves to suffering. This is a moral that interests me--to thrive and to prosper, each one must find a place to call home and become native to that place.

I have translated all this on paper but don´t want to type it all except the last bit, which turned out to be my first poem in another language.

Moraleja de Pachamama
Esta es una moraleja
Que siempre me interesa:

Para medrar y para prosperar,
Cada uno debe encontrar
Un lugar que se llama hogar,
Y se volver indigena en ese lugar.

2 comments:

Phil said...

Yo Val,
Of all things I would not voluntarily anger, a 'mountain' would make the short list. Pray to that devil. Sounds like things are going great there; hopefully see you in Spokane in August.
-pdl

Anonymous said...

That movie sounded wonderful ... and it sounds a lot like much of celtic spirituality ...

We are finally getting a little summer ... about a dozen of us are going to Copper Harbor for an overnight tomorrow for a mini retreat ... night prayer on Brockway is one of the items and Mass at Our Lady of the Pines in Copper Harbor ... we are staying at the Keweenaw lodge.

Prayers coming your way ... Sister Ellen