The Gate In The Bleeding Sky

VIII

We arrived in San Jose in the morning, sunny, a little cold, I will be honest, during the trip I was crying inside, but when I arrived, everything was more colorful than I remembered, perhaps, affected by my traumas, we got off the bus, had breakfast and headed up the mountain, towards a nearby river, the river of whispers, one of the two rivers that surrounded the town. There was a little legend about that river, it says that the river whispers to people, sometimes making requests and rewarding you if you comply, other times betraying you and making you fall until you drown, local legends, typical village mythology. They always seemed to me simple old people's legends, although Jose Luis loved that legend, maybe that's why he went to the Faculty of Archaeology and History.

When we arrived there was a small work camp, security blockades to prevent entry, some people from the town outside talking with Professor Florido, a well-known professor from the archaeology faculty, and members of the university archaeology board of Ribero Santa Rosa. Jose Luis was there, when he saw me he approached me with a wide and surprised smile, greeted me and invited my entourage to enter the work area.

Jose Luis told me that he was with a group of volunteer teachers in Rimbamarca when the tremor happened and that he, on the way to San Jose to check on his family, passed by the river and found the cavern and the debris of the old rock wall that had hidden the entrance for a long time, reporting it to a friend of his and that this friend is the one who planned the exclusive for the university newspaper. He had heard of such a friend, Julio Jurjo, who was known at the university for being someone who liked the political life of the university, he was the typical student who liked to be involved in everything and who liked to do everything, a student leader. I didn't know him personally, but with what they said about him, he already seemed to be a pain in the ass, but well, it's not important.

They told me that when they contacted the faculty leaders and the rector of the university they moved strangely fast, normally administrators in a public university are slow and inefficient, but the current rector, who had been mayor of Diego de Almagro, seemed interested in the issue. So, moving his influences to communicate with the ministry and the local municipalities, maybe he was looking to have something for a future election as rector or as mayor of Almagro, I don't know, for us it was a funny story, how out of nowhere, a university rector was doing his job.

Jose Luis quickly related it to another existing culture that deformed the skulls in that way, but that was the only thing we could relate with something, after all, it was different and strange, stone daggers and ceremonial vessels, but with no way to relate it objectively with something existing, because there is no known civilization prior to the first great native empire that is dated from this area.

All my companions took notes and took as many photographs as possible, before going into the caverns with some guides from the Archaeological-Historical Faculty, among them Jose Luis, who very excited, had accepted to be one of the leaders of the project, it was comforting to have a friend in this project, since the pressure that was exerted on us from the rector's office and the heads of faculty was strong.

Among all that was in that damp cave, what impressed me most was a megalithic construction of great size, in the form of a giant spearhead stuck in the ground, made of rock, very old, with strange cave drawings on it, divided into several scenes. The first scene, people, worshiping the river; in the second scene, in a different environment, people with spear and others escaping from a spot in the sky.... Perhaps a hole, with which, according to Jose Luis, they used blood to give that reddish tone to the painting; the third scene, a person, surrounded by many others, sticking a knife, in whose handle was a six-pointed star, to two smaller figures, perhaps children; there was a fourth and last scene, larger than the previous ones, below the previous ones, a human being, at least in body, with an elongated head, like that of the skulls found, in lighting position, with the head raised and being worshipped by the people around him.

Jose Luis explained to us that they seem to have found the ceremonial knife of the painting, but that it lacked the handle with the star, I just could not stop looking at the figure, that star in the painting made me remember everything I lived in San Jose when I was 14 years old. José Luis' hand made me wake up with a start so I could continue, but when I turned around, a student of archaeology came in, asking everyone to leave as soon as possible, that there had been a problem with the community of San José and that Jurjo wanted the leaders out of the cavern. As it was dangerous to continue without the guidance of a leader, we all had to leave, since we, as newcomers, were not and were not considered in conditions to explore alone.

Outside there was quite a commotion, the San Joseños community members arguing angrily with the university leaders and professors who were supporting the project in person, together with the, I suppose, current leader of the community, a very old and almost decrepit Juan Manuel Quispiyú, I do not know how he had lived so long, when he lived in San José he was already quite old, around 79 years old. This already extremely old but still energetic Manuel Quispiyú demanded the withdrawal of the university research board, at first, arguing that there was no community authorization, much less municipal, which on the one hand was not true, since the rector himself had been responsible for moving his influence to have all the papers in order, and on the other hand, his support or not to the project was not important, because the order was given by the municipality of Rimbamarca, municipality to which San José belonged, they were leaders of their community, not of public projects. So, when they saw this, they switched to the discourse of discrimination, lack of respect for local traditions and above all, the danger of contamination of the river and nearby farming areas.

We spent hours trying to appease the locals, Jose Luis tried to make them see reason, claiming to be from the place and only be thinking of benefits for the people and culture, but nothing helped, the leaders and teachers only managed to order the cessation of exploration movements, and calling police support, which took time to arrive, because they had to come from Rimbamarca, even so, the project was not canceled. The cessation of the exploration was temporary until we could communicate with the rector and the municipality of Rimbamarca, meanwhile, we had to continue with the theoretical work outside the cave, the police decided to stay to protect the university students from the community members, who due to the cessation of the exploration, seemed a little more relieved, some dispersed, for my part, I had to return to the bus to continue my work there, because the night threatened and I had no tent in the river.

My head was pounding from the memory of that painting and as my mind related it to what I experienced, Jose Luis found me walking somewhat lost in my thoughts in San Jose and invited me to have dinner and stay at his house, which I ended up accepting due to the cold and the depth of the night. I had not eaten those things for a long time, life in the city had made me forget many of the things that as a young man, were common for me.

The conversation and the pleasant memories of the dinner were stopped by a knock at the door, it was the community leader and the old Juan Manuel, they had found out that Jose Luis was a leader of the project and wanted to demand that he advocate "in favor of the community", the most euphoric and aggressive, Juan Manuel, who I did not remember so cantankerous, logically they did not manage to make Jose Luis' hand tremble when rejecting them. As soon as they left, Jose Luis looked at me, sat down and proposed to me to investigate Jose Luis Cabanqui, the current community leader, and Juan Manuel Quispiyú, because he suspected that there was political interest and that information had been leaked to larger newspaper companies, and that for money, Cabanqui and Quispiyú were trying to frustrate the university work. Jose Luis' proposal surprised me, as Quispiyú had always been a respected figure in the locality, even in our childishness, we had respected him, but as he said, things change as one matures, and after all, I am a journalist, not a leader of San José, I was, after all, the least qualified to talk about community leaders, as I had gone to live for a long time outside.