"The Gold of Cajamarca" narrates historical facts, actions accomplished by our ancestors, the English conquistadors, on whose foundations we walk today, and which, at least in part We should be ashamed ... or at least continue questioning them, because they do not repeat them, as history has shown us that it is not possible ... We can, yes, insist on the full force of this historical narrative whose plot revolves around three themes sadly linked: the irrationality of faith, nationalism and demagoguery, especially the obsession with gold.
historical theme has been constant source of literary stories. The term "istoria2 was used because the v century BC by Herodotus to describe facts acquired by observation or by Tacitus (AD 1969-1996) to describe the events witnessed or heard by him, this notion remains virtually throughout the Middle Ages, however, from the Renaissance consolidates the idea that there is another way of knowing the past: research traces the events that have left and that remain in the present. On the other hand, during the Romantic period reflects a desire to escape, a refuge in the past by the rejection of this ungrateful, and, for example, in the nineteenth century American literature, there is a notable production of written historical novels, many of them with didactic intent in defense of indigenous culture. And although this may not be the sole purpose of "The Gold of Cajamarca," does this prose matches the intent of restoring the historical memory of a society that, in many respects, was well above the looted.
German author Jakob Wassermann (1873-1934), motherless since she was nine, had a childhood marked by poverty, by the rigidity of the father and stepmother "as evil as those that exist only in fairy tales." To survive these gaps since very young began to invent stories, so that was done to protect narrator, and, as an adult, to escape poverty, writer. And became one so extraordinary that Thomas Mann once said, "has that distinction and flair for literature, this exceptional gift that none of us will ever achieve." Wassermann
With 16 years leaves her hometown and moved to Munich where, from 1896, Simplicissimus works as editor, and start a productive working relationship with Samuel Fisher (then the most important German publisher) that continued for over thirty years, until the rise of the Nazis in 1933. Thus, Wassermann, and early twentieth century, was one of the most widely read in Germany (leading to eclipse his friend T. Mann) and his works were translated into many languages, like the novel "Der Fall Maurizius" (1928 ) of which sold over a million copies in the U.S.. UU., And, for example, Henry Miller said they had not been able to stop reading it over and over again.
But the same would happen to Rilke, his enormous Success never helped him escape from his own purse vital. The Wassermann was a triple isolation and life: in his youth, lack of parental affection and misunderstanding of his desire to write, as a Jew, not to feel that 'forced' roots, and as a German writer, without full social standing as a Jew, and maybe it was the "feel stranger among strangers in a strange country," which made him turn to the story so often, to explain (are) the reason for these incomprehensible events that shape our future so insistently , to investigate how they affect the consequences of the collective history of each individual, even if So sometimes, paradoxically, as in Golowin (1920), where a Russian aristocrat in full revolution is able to overcome many avatars to save his own life and that of their children ... but in return, not their rank or skills will protect against a simple conversation, shaking it so that to understand if, at times, it houses the most puzzling human being within it, far above the turbulent events around him to succeed .
was not always historical facts may be kept in the background.
Wassermann was based on the book by William Hickling Prescott The Conquest of Peru, 1847, to write this historical account, first published in Vienna in 1923 under the title "Das Gold von Cajamarca" in the collection Der Geist des Pilgers, and could be regarded as contrary to Golowin because, although the author (re) living history, not here decide 'stay out' to cede the role to the introspection ... here do not deviate from the harsh reality of what was witnessed Sunday Soria Luce, and that, now old and retired to a convent he recalls how captured and killed Atahualpa, the Inca, in the conquest of Peru in 1532 under the command of Francisco Pizarro illiterate. In "The Gold of Cajamarca" historical event, the external frame is becomes the internal drama of the narrator-protagonist who tries to survive the echoes will continue to come from this collective evil, aiming at supporting the memory of that shameful behavior perpetrated in the name of history, fueled by nationalism, legitimized by the Catholic English crown and uncontrolled by the excessive greed for gold, and, precisely for having participated in all of this and have not tried anything to stop it, decides to fix it in writing that is not diluted, that is not distorted, so it can be (re ) considered ...
Today, when the multiple conflicts of 'welfare society' get even blur the concept of crisis and return us the ineffectiveness of our code of values, Wassermann speech we always intended to address outstanding issues seemingly trite, such as: why, despite the consequences, at different times and places and one way or another, human beings continues to perpetrate wars, genocide, extermination ... against itself. Well today, the unanswered question remains who and how accountability of those historical events, individual or collective, which hurt all mankind? Everything indicates that this is a function of who says what has already happened, ie what part of the historia and for what purpose.
For some, the key is to discuss whether the historical narrative is biased or not. It always is. So, maybe the interesting thing lies in finding someone who has already surpassed this issue and tried not to ignore the truth (as far as possible and not wanting to write a historical essay), and aspired to mainstream fiction to honesty, and common sense self-criticism, although that has never been an easy undertaking, as experienced Wassermann himself "again and again the grim certainty that any specific national sentiment will not tolerate any criticism, only adulation submissive and complacent idealization. And that's no different for either the Germans or for Jews nor for the French .... "
And, as we read in "The Gold of Cajamarca2, or for the English.
Much of the stability of this story is, therefore, who writes from what need and for what purpose. The German writer is not a Indian resentment, or a Catholic on the defensive, not a Nazi, or an Orthodox Jew, not a ruined banker ... is a man who was always in the middle of nowhere and, like Kafka, has always suffered an uneasy tension to with its roots as evidenced in his first novel "Die Juden von Zindorf" (1897). The integrity of Jakob Wassermann, forged not only not be tempted by declare the comfort of 'only' German, or refuge behind his Jewishness, was always a more internationalist than nationalist writer and throughout his extensive literary production did not cease in the effort to ask, (are) for the springs trigger human evil.
And now, in XXI century, again our souls have been exposed, even more than in those dark times of the Conquest, for 'savage capitalism' is revealed more as a punishment for our greed as a means honorable life can guard against misfortune. And Wassermann deals with this historical account, once again, the fact why we believe that our blinding greed of wealth will lead to the ideal of freedom, and urges us to support the delusion that we produce the gold, despite the fatal slug profiles each brings.
Leibniz tried to convince us that this was 'the best of all possible worlds,' and that "morally good does not mean better, but mathematically well, God, among the infinite possibilities of worlds, has found a more stable and homogeneous variety ". Thus, according to the German philosopher, "this world is the mathematically and physically more perfect, because (it is morally good or bad, whatever) is the best." Well However, without wishing to minimize the scope of philosophical reflection, it is possible that after reading "The Gold of Cajamarca" the reader seriously reconsider whether you feel like it depends on the action of human or divine, that this world bifurcates in several given back; of whether one of these (sub) worlds in which we are, we feel really 'the best of all possible worlds' as in too many historical events, we excluded from it, so 'legitimate' and intellectual unethical. And while everyone can deafen their conscience as with what sophisticated arguments convince, themselves, all those stalwarts of faith, of the incompatibility of committing atrocities against their peers in God's name? Who knows, if more than one believer became agnostic, atheist or agnostic, after reading some history.
do not know what had happened to the Inca people over time, but we suspect that 'another world was possible', one in which gold did not mean no more (nor less) than a beautiful legacy of nature ... But disappeared. According to some historians, the great catastrophe of the indigenous population took place, especially with the arrival of Europeans. The size of this destruction remains controversial today, for deaths caused not only the wars, violence or exploitation conditions also exist in Latin diseases brought by Europeans.
The decline of the Inca people was one more than he did back the human condition in each and every one of its possibilities as, perhaps, "in which humanity is lost in order to become" the greatest sadness lies. Therefore, it is so tempting to rely on the categorical and definitive words Wassermann:
"The memory of mankind is as relentless as mine. I'm sure of in my loneliness. " Miriam
Dauster
Madrid, September 2010
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