|
The
legend of
El Dorado
began in a mysterious place in South America. For centuries explorers have
desperately searched for it, and hundreds of lives were lost to realize
this exotic dream. For a few, the lust for gold was unquenchable; for
others, it was the desire to experience something mystical, mythical, and
magical.
Tal vez El Dorado se encuentre en algun lugar remoto de Sur America, o
este muy guardado dentro en nuestras almas y sea el paraiso celestial…
There
is an Inner Light - A Celebration of Life! The search for the Golden City
continues through rivers, mountains, forests, deserts, and grasslands and
in the hearts of the people.
ACT I
·
Tierra sin nombre, sin America
(Land without name, without America).
·
Las Guerreras Amazonas
(The Amazon Warriors): Departing from Quito in 1540, the first of the
conquistadors to cross the Amazon River in search of El Dorado was
Francisco Orellana.
Orellana's expedition underwent frequent attacks by the Indians during his
journey. In one region, it was women who far surpassed the men in bravery
and skill. They were described as (mujeres blancas, altas y fuertes)
tall, white, and having the strength of 10 men. Their amazing
strength brought to mind the Amazons of
Greek mythology.
The Spaniards then named the land “the Amazon”; however, it was the river
that eventually became known as “the Amazon River.”
·
“Las Virgenes del Sol”
The Virgins of the Sun, or Holy Women were chosen from the most beautiful
girls of the tribe at the young age of 7, and lived in the Moon Temple .
At 15, they were chosen to be the wives of the Inca (the king) or for
human sacrifices to the lord, “the sun.”
·
La Princesa de Guatavita (The Guatavita Princess):
The legend tells of the ancestors heaving piles of gold into the sacred
lake covering the bottom with unimaginable treasures. They believed that
the spirit of the former chieftain’s wife, “The Guatavita Goddess”, lived
in the lake bound by a terrible monster.
-
The first journey the new king had to make was to the great lagoon of
Guatavita to make offerings and sacrifices to their god and lord. The myth
began in 1537, in the Andes of present-day Colombia , where conquistador
Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada first found the Muisca, a nation in the modern
day highlands of northern Bogotá , Colombia. The imaginary place (La
ciudad de Oro), El Dorado , became a kingdom, an empire, and the city
of this legendary king.
·
La Danza de El Venado:
“The Dance of the Dear” is very important to the culture of the Mexican
tribe known as the Yaquis. The life and the death of the dear is sacred
to them, and a religious ceremony is performed to honor their gods by the
best dancer and the most significant male of the tribe.
·
El SOL y
la LUNA,
The Sun
and the Moon
·
They are coming through the Island:
Columbus reached the Island of Ganahani (San Salvador) in 1492 navigating
La Pinta, La Nina and La Santa Maria. He thought he had reached India;
therefore, named the natives “Indios”. One can only speculate how the
natives felt seeing these strangers clad in armor, mounted on strange
unknown beasts with “golden shoes” on their four feet. At first they
believed the Spaniards were gods visiting them from the sky and sea, but
too late realized they only wanted “Gold and Power.”
Muy tarde
se dieron cuenta que solo querian Oro y Poder.
·
The
Capture of Atahualpa, the last king of the Incan Empire:
Friar Vicente, with a translator, presented a copy of the Bible to
Atahualpa. Never having seen a book, he looked
at it and admired its form and layout, then became angry and threw it down
amongst his men and rejected it. This “sacrilege” was all that Pizarro
needed to justify a massacre. They locked the royal prisoner, Atahualpa in
the
Temple of the Sun.
The King offered Pizarro an 88 cubic meter room, filled with precious gold
and silver for his freedom. Soon they tortured the natives to get more
information about this gold. The Spaniards were convinced that they were
in danger if Atahualpa remained alive and sentenced the last king of the
Incas to be burned alive.
·
"Death" before surrendering to the Spanish: Within
the fifty years of Columbus’s first discovery of the New World and finding
the gold within, the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru had succumbed
to the conquistadores’ voracious appetite for gold. Even the rich tombs
of the Sinu Indians in the high Andes were robbed, but they would choose
death rather than surrender to the Spanish.
·
Lamentation of the Native’s souls!
Gold is the king of metals (el
oro era el rey de los metales)
and the metal of kings; it is the ultimate measure of value. The
conquistadors went so far as to say that with gold, man’s soul can “gain
entrance into paradise” (que
llegaba al paraiso celestial).
It gave them a glimpse into paradise; unfortunately, the exploration
turned into exploitation.
·
El Salto de los Cinco Mil (The jump of the Five Thousand):
This is the legend of a tribe of five thousand that lived in the Andes
Mountains of Colombia. The priest of the tribe had a premonition of a
terrible sacrifice. If their god, “the sun” appeared for three days and
three nights and the moon slept without being seen, the Spaniards would be
destroyed by “the sun”. If not, the entire tribe of men, women and
children must sacrifice themselves by jumping off the cliffs of the
Chicamocha Mountain in complete silence
believing this would save the future generations of the tribe.
ACT II
·
Las Siete Potencias (The Seven Powers),
When the Africans were brought to the New World as slaves, they found that
their beliefs were coincidentally very similar.
The Seven Powers of Africa were also the most important celestial
deities of the indigenous empires that resembled those of the Mayans and
Aztecs from Mexico, the Incas from Peru and Muiscas from Colombia. These
beliefs and rituals eventually blended together with those of the natives
and were celebrated in secret. The Spaniards tried desperately to
eliminate them unsuccessfully, and decided to also combine the Catholic
saints with the seven powers of life.
· En
Buzca de EL DORADO, El Paraiso Celestial
(In the search of the Golden City, the paradise land)
“Perhaps El Dorado is found within our heart beat, within the rhythm of
the souls and in the memories of the people. Perhaps El Dorado is the
highest spiritual place … made of the wings of cherub’s, the glory of
tropical down, the red clouds of sunset and fragments of lost verses of
“master poets” who sing of life.”
Quizas
el Dorado sea el latido de nuestros Corazones, el ritmo de las almas, la
memoria de los hombres. El Dorado es un lugar sagrado, espiritual…
compuesto de alas de querubines, la Gloria de un amanecer tropical, la
armonia celestial de un atardecer y fragmentos de versos perdidos que
cantan a la vida. |
