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Death in the Andes
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
"'All these hills are full of enemies,' she said softly. 'They live inside. Day and night they weave their evil schemes. They do endless harm. That’s why there are so many accidents. Cave-ins in the mines. Trucks that lose their brakes and drive off the road on curves. Boxes of dynamite that explode and blow off legs and hands. … They send down huaycos (avalanches) too.'"
"In the old days, people had the courage to face great troubles by making sacrifices. That’s how they maintained the balance. Life and death are like a scale with two equal weights, like two rams of equal strength that lock horns and neither one can advance or retreat."
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
"Besides, thanks to these hills, Naccos had an aura, a magic power. Danger always attracts us. Doesn’t it represent true life, life that’s worthwhile? But security is boredom, it’s stupidity, it’s death. These mountains are full of ancient tombs.Without those presences there wouldn’t be so many spirits in this part of the Andes."
MARIO VARGAS LLOSA
"It is true that they always appear in difficult times, as the invasion of Ayacucho demonstrates. Around here there must be some in the caves of these hills, piling up their reserve of human fat. They must need it, there in Lima, or in the United States, to oil the new machines, the rockets they send to the Moon, for example. They say that there is no gasoline or oil that makes scientific inventions work as well as the fat of the rabble."