THE CORN LEGEND
©By Amparo Jaramillo-Restrepo
The legend began many years ago
among the Chibcha Indians, a group of people who lived in the center of
Colombia , South America , many years ago, before our ancestors hadn’t
learned to farm or tame animals. Their existence was a simple one: they
lived in straw houses or “chozas”, and covered their bodies with animal
skins. They ate fruits and vegetables, fished or hunted using
rudimentary weapons like arrows, or stone-knives.
The head of
one of those families was a man called Piraca, and he lived undisturbed
with his wife and two small children, a girl and a boy.
The mountains and
the transparent rivers of their countryside were rich in gold, and the
children competed among themselves looking for the golden beads. On top
of that, the father made long trips to get salt and some astonishing,
green stones found inside a secret cave, in a distant cordillera, not
knowing that someday those stones will become the Muzo Emeralds, some of
the most famous in the whole world.
But suddenly,
the gods turned their backs on the Chibcha tribe and the rain escaped to
the ocean, riding on back of the wind. The earth became so dry that the
trees couldn’t bear any fruit and the wild beasts came over the
grassland killing the small animals in their desperate search for food.
Until
finally, one day, Piraca’s family had nothing to eat or furs to cover
their bodies, and even the soft colorful vegetal fibers the mother used
to weave baskets and hats, were difficult to find.
Indian
children were told not to cry. Thus, they never complained regardless of
hunger’s torment. However, brother and sister began to look like wilted
flowers and they didn’t have any energy to play in the forest or swim in
the nearby lagoon.
One morning,
while the couple found refuge near the fire where they were boiling some
roots, their daughter woke up with a placid look and
said: “I dreamed I was walking through a blue prairie
covered with stars.”
“Who cares about stars, sister” answered her brother. “All I
want now is some fruit to eat.”
“You know there aren’t
any fruits left because the animals ate them all. The poor beasts are as
hungry as we are” his sister responded.
“I went hunting in
the forest yesterday, but I couldn’t even find a rabbit”, said the
father.
“Look, Piraca, our
children are shivering because the only blankets we have are full of
holes” the mother cried.
“The gods have abandoned
us. Since the rain went away not even the rainbow shines here, and the
rivers and the lagoon are dying from thirst”.
“Later on I’ll go
fishing with the children. May be this time we’ll have better luck”,
said the mother, trying to cheer them up.
But despite
the fact that they got some small fish and a few vegetables that day,
the next day found them still starving.
That’s when Piraca and
his wife decided in a moment of desperation to unearth the clay pot
where they kept their most precious treasure, the gold and the emeralds
gathered for a long time.
“I hope that
at least I’ll be able to trade them for salt, a few blankets and maybe
some dry fish”, said the father while he scattered the beautiful beads
on an animal skin. I will depart tomorrow to visit one of the villages
on the valley.
“Bring me a
nice blanket…, a necklace… and some bracelets…”, begged the girl next
day when Piraca was ready to leave.
“Stop day
dreaming girl. All we need now is some food”, said the mother embracing
her.
“Beware of
wild animals. Remember that they are also hungry” added the son before
his father said goodbye.
The sun was beginning to
rise over the dry earth when Piraca took off. He had the clay pot in one
of his hands, and a backpack with bow and arrows to protect him from the
wild beasts.
It was a long, long trip, through the savanna first, and the
steep trails across the mountains later. His bare feet hurt a lot. After
he had walked for several days he felt so tired, that when he found a
small valley he decided to rest under a tree and he fell asleep.
While Piraca was sleeping
two small rabbits that were crossing the countryside looking for food
came to the same spot. When they saw the man, the oldest one who loved
adventure said, “ look! A sleeping man. Maybe he is carrying some food”.
“Please, don’t
move, he is armed”, advised Shy Rabbit.
But there was no way to
stop Curious Rabbit who went directly to the clay pot. And when he found
the gold and the emerald beads, he said taking one on his hands, “they
look like stones”.
Piraca in the meantime was beginning to move, so the rabbits
threw away the clay pot with its contents and ran away.
It was late in the day
when Piraca awoke. The first thing he did was to put on his backpack and
look for the clay-pot. And when he didn’t find it near him he panicked
and the most terrible anguish took hold of him.
“My gold and my
emeralds!, somebody stole them. I’m a dead man. What am I going to do?”
he cried.
He began pacing the
earth back and forth around him, until suddenly he had a gut feeling and
knelt down to touch the grass. There, hidden among some dried leaves he
found a golden bead and a step further a green one, then another gold
bead, and so on... Until the sun’s last rays shone over the earth and
he saw like small stars gleaming everywhere. And there it was… his empty
clay pot.
Tears, which
he had not shed since he was a frightened child, started to flow from
his eyes while he was kneeling down, lost in his sorrow in the midst of
the dying day.
“I have to
recover my gold and my emeralds before the sun sets over the mountains”,
he thought gathering his last strength. “But I doubt I’ll be able to
find all of them”. He was peering through the grass while trying to
cover every piece of land with his hands, inch by inch.
Suddenly, the
sky opened above him and a magnificent double rainbow shone on top of
the mountains. Piraca’s whole body fell into a magic spell and his
worries disappeared. Just then, he heard a gentle voice calling him by
his name.
“Piraca,
stop! Don’t pick up the gold and the emeralds”.
Piraca
turned around and he saw an old man with a silver beard, dressed in a
long white tunic.
“Who do you
think you are to give me orders?”
“I’m Bochica,
your ancestors’God. The one who saved your tribe from the flooding.
Don’t you remember the story?”
“Yes sir, but
the gold and the emeralds are all my treasure and without them my family
will perish”, said Piraca still kneeling down.
“Listen to me
Piraca! This is my promise: Plant each one of the beads in a hole and
cover it with soil to protect them from the wind and the animals. Leave
them alone and come back after four moons. I promise you that then
you’ll find a treasure more precious than the gold and the emeralds, and
your people won’t ever suffer from hunger again”.
Bochica
disappeared, but the rainbow stayed for awhile until night came over the
earth. Piraca slept like a baby and next day he felt happier than he had
ever been before. He planted the gold and the emeralds the way Bochica
told him, and as soon as he finished the planting the rain started to
come down. Its sound was so great that Piraca didn’t mind walking under
the fat raindrops all the way back home.
Piraca’s wife
didn’t believe god Bochica’s story, but Indian women were not supposed
to argue with their husbands. The earth was alive again with the rain
blessing, and even the tropical birds were coming back to the forest to
serenade the children with their melodious songs. Piraca in the mean
time counted the moon’s cycles with dents made on a tree.
When the day
finally came the whole family began their journey very early walking
through the savanna’s paths and the mountain trails, until they came to
the valley where Piraca had planted the gold and the emeralds.
“I
don’t see any treasure”, cried the mother disheartened.
“Are
you sure this is the place father?” asked the boy.
“Yes, I marked with a few stones the place were Bochica
appeared”, Piraca said while he looked everywhere trying to find the
promised treasure.
“See? That’s the tree! Let’s go there”.
“Look”, called the
girl, who had gone ahead of them. “There is a new crop on the other side
of the valley. Those are some funny plants unlike anything I have seen
before”.
Everybody ran
there to see and touch the beautiful, elegant plants dancing in the
wind. They had long, velvet, emerald leaves and a strange fruit crowned
by silky silver strands, like the God Bochica’s beard.
“Let’s
pick up the fruit” suggested Piraca and they all helped out.
And
when they took the outside husks off, they found a cone like fruit with
golden grains, just like their gold beads.
“We’ll
call it MAIZ (corn), the God’s present, made from gold and emeralds”,
suggested Piraca.
The legend
adds that the God Bochica came back for awhile to live among the Chibcha
Indians and to teach them how to farm and use the new crop. And the
Chibchas were never hungry again.
Thousands of years
have gone by. The new crop spread rapidly throughout The Americas, and
in many countries corn became the basic food, one which saved Indian
people from starving on many occasions.
And even in
our modern world, when we have such an abundance of food, the once
humble crop has become the king. And we use it almost every day in
different forms: empanadas, arepas, tortillas, tamales, tacos,
enchiladas, corn bread, burritos and of course, popcorn, everybody’s
favorite.
That’s why we
can proclaim as the Chibcha Indians did, that corn is really a God sent
present.
