Ortiz - Legends of the Amazon

Title: Legends of the Amazon

Author: Vinicio Ortiz

Illustrations: Israel Pardo and Vinicio Ortiz

Foreword: Ibtissem Ben Dridi, Ph.D. Anthropology, EHESS, Paris, France.

Translation: Sandy Ohlund

Copyright Vinicio Ortiz 2012

All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication or any part of it in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication shall be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

ISBN 9781623097165

Moorland eBooks 2012

Dedicated to the Memory

of

Pedro Chalco

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to all the people who have supported me during the preparation of this book, especially to my family who believed in me.

Also, of course, to all of the people of Playas de Cuyabeno for unselfishly giving me their knowledge.

To Corinna Brunschn for giving me the drive to write the book and the necessary inspiration.

To Israel Pardo for his incredible graphics for the book cover and each story.

To Ibtissem Ben Dridi, a great friend, for taking the time in her tight schedule to revise the content of the book and for giving me her valuable point of view.

To Sandy Ohlund, who made the translation form the Spanish edition.

To Lars Pedersen, who came up with the idea to create an eBook version of my book.

To all of my friends from all over the world who have had patience with me, have demonstrated generosity and have supported me during the making of this book.

Thank you.

Vinicio Ortiz

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the whole world.

Let us make of the world one single country in which there are no borders and in which we may feel completely in harmony with nature.

Let us find the balance between our own souls and the outside world.

FOREWORD

Vinicio Ortiz presents us here with a collection of legends of the Quichua people, who inhabit the province of Sucumbos, in the north of the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin.

These people have known very well and still know today a certain remnant of their culture, through colonization, evangelization and the invasion of their lands by the oil companies; even now their traditions continue to be strong and a good part of their cultural heritage is still alive.

This cultural heritage is expressed especially by means of its cosmology and mythology. These people, in effect, have developed an oral tradition particularly rich in knowledge about the natural environment.

The book Legends of the Amazon by Vinicio Ortiz testifies to this richness; all the stories presented have a bond with nature, for example the legends of the origin of the moon, of certain animals, or even of man populating the forest. They translate a cosmic vision that harmonizes the universe, man and his natural environment.

In this way, the valuation and the knowledge of the oral tradition of this group of people are fundamental, in the sense that they express a cultural identity and that they constitute a true social bond.

The oral tradition also has a fundamental role in teaching their culture. With the influences that today affect the Amazon cultures, this transmission from the elders to the younger people often has gaps, and although tourism can have negative effects on a culture, it can also have positive effects: for example, when, every night, Vinicio Ortiz recounts to the tourists one of the legends transmitted by the elders, all of the indigenous children sit down around him to hear a part of their culture.

A book for any person interested in the poetry and the richness of indigenous Amazon culture

Ibtissem Ben Dridi

Ph.D. in Anthropology

EHESS, Paris, France

May, 2009

INTRODUCTION

With this book I intend to preserve in some way the ancient knowledge that we have lost, almost without knowing it; we need this knowledge to enrich our lives now, making it accessible to the entire world and in the hope that now it might last forever.

The majority of the legends described in this book were narrated during the year 2000 by the Quichua from a place in the middle of the Amazon jungle called Playas de Cuyabeno (Beaches of the Cuyabeno River). This magical place is located exactly at the confluence of the Cuyabeno and Aguarico rivers, within the Cuyabeno Wildlife Production Reserve. This is in the north of the Ecuadorian jungle.

(See following map.)

Since then in my work as a jungle guide I have had the opportunity to translate these legends of the indigenous people directly to tourists from many countries who have come to visit the rainforest and also to meet the people who live there.

The legends that follow are only a small sample of the rich oral tradition of the Quichua people; they are stories that I have chosen on purpose. I have selected those that I think will be easier to understand.

While writing these stories I have changed a few words and a little of the terminology so that they might be more accessible to our western understanding, but always maintaining their original makeup, in other words, without losing their essence.

These legends contain ancestral knowledge so that they might be enjoyed by people of any age. We can gather among friends or family to listen to each legend and in this way enter a new world of mystery and magic.

Vinicio Ortiz

Ecuadorian section of the jungle, where the book was written.

MOTHER MOON

A long time ago in a small village there was a very primitive house where an Indian brother and sister lived with their parents.

During this time the young girl had a problem: every night a man came to her bed.

She did not know who this man was because the room was totally dark.

The young girl was worried and went to see her grandmother in order to ask her advice.

Her grandmother told her that she should go to the jungle to get a fruit called the Huito, and that she should mash the fruit and put it on a plate next to her bed. When the man came that night she should put the paste on the mans face, staining him with a dark green that would last at least ten days. In that way she would be able to recognize the green-faced man that returned each night.

So the girl collected some huitos that were growing around the nearby lagoon; she then mashed the fruits on a small ceramic plate and put it under her bed. Then she waited for night to come.

When the man came to her room that night, the girl dipped her hand into the paste made of pure huito and she painted his whole face with the green dye.

The next day the girl went to look for a man with a painted face; she searched in every house in her village but she didnt find anyone.

Disappointed, she returned to her home. She went to tell her brother what had happened but when she found him, he hid his face with both hands.

It had been her own brother, but in those days brothers and sisters were permitted to marry if necessary, so their parents made them get married.