Departing at Dawn

18 The Indian

108 18 The Indian The Indian resembled Uncle Tristán Javier and the other Riera brothers. In fact, the Indian was like many Riojans: tall, dark, and beardless, with shiny, thick, coarse hair that he wore long and tied back in a ponytail. He had dark eyes, a straight nose, small ears, and very fine arms and legs that were not all that muscular in comparison with his thick waist. He did not seem to be much older than Berta, maybe ten or so years at most. Because the Indian was built the way he was, the weather in the Los Llanos plains did not bother him at all. And another reason,accordingtohim,wasthathehadalwaysbeenthere,before all the Rieras and their goats, before the priests and police, even before the droughts, when thanks to Pachamama, Mother Earth, Olpa had been a land of forests of algarroba, white quebracho , tintintaco, chañar and other local trees, and the puma had been an animal not to be hunted but to be respected and worshiped. That was before the white men stripped away all those things that Pachamama had provided to support a jungle where the trees and animals and also her people and their spirits could live. Their elders could reach a ripe old age and teach the others what the voices of their ancestors whispered in their 109 ears, at every fiesta or celebration of life or death. That is why they were allowed to get so old—to listen to what they heard on the inside more than on the outside. Because bodies so old tended to withdraw or separate from the soul, elders were able to serve as a medium for the voices of gods and spirits. The Indian was sure he embodied the spirit of one of the elders that had been reincarnated in so many “sources,” including ones like himself who had faced countless other Rieras in Olpa, just daring them to throw them off the land with the algarroba woods. The story goes that one day in 1894 after an earthquake, an old, old Indian named Simón Fuentes showed up at the Riera place, holding up a cane tied with a white cloth like a flag, and said to Don Centurión Riera, the great-great-grandfather: “Ihavereturned.”Andhehadbroughtwithhimhiswomen and his children. They say that Don Centurión, grieving over all the losses of family and goods in La Rioja caused by the earthquake, looked at him calmly, then turned and said to his wife, children, and workers: “Don’t bother the Indian, respect his place, but if he wants more than that piece of land with the trees, kill him without another thought and lock up the women and children so they will learn their lesson and later come to work for us.” Simón Fuentes had been so named by a Fuentes family to whom the Indian never bowed despite the punishment they gave him, nor thanked despite the training they provided (the story has it that he was educated at a seminary in Córdoba). 110 When that great-great-grandfather (also called “Sea Green” because of his eyes) died at the age of ninety-seven, he left a will in which he clearly stated his orders: “. . . that the Indian Simón Fuentes and his descendents not be bothered, so long as they respect the boundary of the algarroba forest and the women of the house and the Holy Church and any of its representatives; and that he and his family be provided with enough water to live, so long as they practice good habits that do not offend Christian morals . . . .” So the Fuentes Indians lived there, always producing some sonwhocouldtakecareofthatpieceofwoodedlandonlythree hectares in size, situated opposite the house. The Indian and all his family would periodically go away for several months, to gather fruit or hunt in other regions or to cross the mountain range, but they always returned, just like the wild cattle. The wishes of Tata Centurión were honored, and each generation was measured in terms of two creatures: a Riera man next to a Fuentes man, each with his own expression, his wrinkled brow, his lack of trust, his God. Each one sat in his own chair in the evening eyeing the other silently, except for the few words that had to be uttered about sharing the little water available there in the desert, according to the...