The past 24 hours have been the most amazing part of our trip so far. We arrived in Purmamarca several hours late as Aeorlineas appears to have trouble keeping to a schedule. Fortunately we do not have to fly for another week or so. The first thing we did upon arriving was walk to a woman's house. Her name is Laura Vilte and she was the prinicpal of the local elementary school here in town. She also had taught at teacher college as well. She was a remarkably informed and well spoken woman. Honestly not what I expected to find in such a remote area.
She began by telling us a bit about her father who had built her home and about the village and the children who go to school there. She said, "now that there is so much tourism here the mothers do not stay home with their children and the school has to take care of them. She complained that the kids ate junk food and did not get enough good food to eat. Which sounds very familiar to me.
Next, she told us about the importance of retaining the villagers cultural heritage which is the Purmamarca group of the Omahuaca. This is one of the 100s of indigenous groups that still exhist in Argentina. They can trace their roots to a group of people that lived in the area 10,000 years ago. And they are descended from the Inca. This is about the furthest south that the Inca's traveled. In the town square there were many booths set up to sell sweaters, blankets, hats, and other woven goods made from mostly llama but they were not made locally. All the goods there came from either Bolivia or Peru. Most of the arts and crafts of the Purmamarca people were no longer being practiced. But she told us a few places to go where it was still made by local people in the traditional way.
Laura then talked to us about the time of the "Disappeared" and that her sister was one of the disappeared. Her sister had been instrumental in rallying teachers in the teacher union and the dictatorship did not want the workers to work together. So, they arrested her, but they let her go after a short time. But then this woman went outside the detention center and sang copla's which are a traditional way of singing for the purmamarca people. She made up her coplas and they were condemning the treatment of the detainees and she eventually was arrested and Laura never saw her again. Laura told us then of a young man who had been among the disappeared who's remains have just recently been recovered. She talked about being with the mother when she was told of this. Then Laura was crying and so were the rest of us. It was such an amazing experience because we had visited the memory museum but it was such a sparse empty space with nothing to personalize it. But when Laura told us her story we all felt very touched and emotional and got a small glimpse of what it must have been like to live in that time here in Argentina. We were able to put a face to the "Dirty War" a real life victim who is still suffering because of what happened to her family and I feel I have a much greater understanding now.
Finally, to lighten the mood I think, Laura finshed by singing some coplas for us and they were fantastic. She sang a traditional love copla that was about her lover and how he was fantastic in the day but even better in the night. She sang one for all us women that was about how we didn't reallyneed the men and they should just stop talking. That brought quite a few laughs and she sang a really sweet one for her sister who was disappeared. And then we all kissed in the Argentinean way and said goodnight. So far this has been the quintessential event in my travel.
The next day we hike through the hills of seven colors and I will put some of those pictures up. We also visited another village call Tilcara where we met a young man named Mariano who owned a shop that sold traditional crafts from a group of indians named wichis. They have created a cooperative to try to help these indians retain their rich culture and traditional way of life. Their products are a bit more expensive but they are so much more beautiful and it felt good to know we were helping out a local indigenous group. They worked in wood, silver and leather mostly. I bought a beautiful pair of silver earings with the zuri image on it which is traditional iconery meaning earth and rain.
We finished up our day with an unplanned visit to the local school in Tilcara. The principal and teachers were all incredibly friendly and were excited to show us their students. The kids were typical kids of that age. As soon as they had a new audience they got extremely silly, but the teacher began singing a song and they immediately settled down and sang along. It was a beautiful bit of classroom management. The teachers then gave us an impromptu tea with a local made apricot marmalade on crackers and gave us a copy of their school calendar that highlighted important dates, photographs of the students and student work. I will never forget the kindness and compassion we have received from these people that many people discriminate against in Argentina. All in all, an indescribable experience. I am hoping when I get back to the US I can get my students to help organize a book drive to send books in Spanish to the students at the schools we have visited.
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