"Á AMERICA LOCA"
By SANTOS CHOCANO
Peruvian, and Colonel in the Constitutionalist Army in Mexico
(Late 1913)
Peoples tumultuous. Feverish countrysides.
Latin America, sunstruck and mad.
(Prehistoric)
| Empires decked in the pomp of the warrior, blinded with luxury, deafened by sound,
Stolid priests hacking out entrails and viscera—wild sacrifices to Gods of the mound. Martinet masters who drag out the hours in low sensualities foreign to Love, Fatuous peoples all, like to their posts: heartless, whom only their fancies can move. (1520) Then arrives Spain with her cross and her sorrows, after her centuries seven of strife. Phantomlike multitudes (fair gods on horses) lay waste the Andes and strip them of life. Pizarro and Almagro cross their keen rapiers in fratricide strife that runs on till to-day— Hernan Cortéz in the arms of Marina, mingles two bloods that are marked for decay. Offspring, a Gryphon; futile, insane— Eagle of feather, and lion of mane. Moorish depression comes out of the desert, clinging all time to the strange Spanish horse. Wailing, its sadness finds echo in Andes, mountains now silent and dumb with remorse. |
