This valley set among the hills that extended its limits hanging our homes through the slopes and wherever another pin fits in, lives daily its unseen worlds.
Of course, the influence of Aymara people has a lot to do, and that takes us once more to the forgotten history that always and forever interacts, settle and relate with unseen worlds. Eventhough this is not new, unfortunately it’s always digested as legend, myth, folklore or ‘something popular’… if not within the disparaging categories of ‘things of the common people’, ‘superstitions’, ablutions, etc.
Today, 201 years of La Paz libertarian saga, a walk through some of the expressions that daily revive the forgotten history of our unseen worlds:
¿Yapita casera? | Yapa, aymara word for additional product in transaction, casera is the lady that sells products. The transaction doesn’t end with ‘take what you pay for’, instead pay and take the ‘yapa’ also, an aditional product donated through which bonds extend so that the person returns to buy at that place
¡Hay que llamar su ‘ajayu’! | We have to call the ajayu! | Aymara word that we know as spirit, soul. After a terrible fight, that part of us separates and may wander around, needs to be called in order to integrate again with us
¿Cómo nos irá? Veremos en huevo | How will it be for us? Let’s see in an egg | A glass of beer on which an egg is broken and becomes an oracle
Hierbitas calientes para el dolor | Hot herbs for pain | Awaken knowledge on herbs and medicinal properties, some are cold, others warm, others fresh and , as it happens with nature, their effects are measured by their qualities in interaction.
Mordete la manga, están hablando mal de tí | Bite your sleeve, they are speaking about you | To interrupt that irate flow we feel as fire in ears or cheeks when they speak about us
Anoche se me ha despedido… | Last night he/she said goodbye | Could be a kin, friend or someone we know announcing departure from this world with unseen presences
Tenemos que ch’allar | We have to ch’allar | Ch’allar is the Aymara word for offering | Offering to Mother Earth for the fruit received, be it for food, fruits, or using a new house, inauguration of work, celebrate an achievement, beyond rituals synchronized to yearly natural cycles
Primero a la Pachamama | First Mother Earth | And from the glass the drink is spilled on soil before making cheers or consuming as an offering to Mother Earth recognizing her primacy over life, which is like saying without her we would not exist so we do not confuse with beliefs or ‘worships’
Los pájaros están cantando, va a llover, recogeré la ropa | Birds are singing, it’s going to rain, I will pick up the clothes | Recognizing the specific singing of the birds announcing the rain
La guagua ha llorado toda la noche, seguro has dejado su ropa al sereno | The baby cried all night long, I am sure you left his/her clothes outside | Clothes are impregnated by our energies, babies and children do not control emotions, they handle them as in the fluid state, and their intensity makes no difference between clothes and body, they remain bonded to them, therefore they feel through them the outside weather
Amarrale un hilito para que no te extrañe la guagua | Tie a lace so the baby will not miss you | Bonds between parents and babies are really strong, when they separate from the baby for hours or because of a trip, the baby cries feeling something is missing, it’s like a cold running through or something pulling from them
Retama para que no entren malos espíritus | Broom (plant) so bad spirits do not come in | Recognition of the unseen properties of broom, same as garlic and others, to stop the flow of entities, forces and potencies that may influence what we do, not only spirits, they could also be a force brought by the wind carrying an illness
La tijera abierta bajo el colchón | Scissors open under the mattress | Scissors like knives, swords, sables, and others, are the manifestation of the Element Air and opened may prevent the passing of unseen energies, not necessarily evil ones
¡Tanto grano! Seguro te han hecho amarre | So many pimples! I am sure they tied you up | Witchcraft that tries to change the will of another person to satisfy one’s own
¡Wa! Otra clase pareces, se te han entrado, tienes que hacerte sacar | Wa! (exclamation) You seem different, they went into you, you have to go so they take them out | Recognition the person has something or someone inside that changed her/his ways. Different from Catholic ‘possessions’ or ‘exorcism’ because in these cases they are not treated as ‘demons’ but entities that can be good or bad, but that is not their place
¡Chuy! Tan feo te ha mirado, echaremos azúcar a tus pies | Hey! They looked at you in such an ugly way, let’s throw sugar to your feet | Just like ‘if looks could kill’ that does have effects in unseen worlds and may cause severe damage freezing energies; sugar carries fire inside and dissolves that freezing in time
No le barras sus pies, no se va a casar | Do not sweep her feet, she will not get married | The broom when sweeping, besides picking up trash, gathers unseen energies and in the case of young ones about to get married, breaks bonds with those they are related
Déjalo ahí, nos vamos a pelear | Leave it there, we will fight | Knife, salt, hot pepper that are not to be delivered in the hand because they are conductors of primordial energies, like earth, air, fire and they repel each other when they meet, like poles in electricity or magnets
Te prepararé algo caliente para que vuelvas a tu cuerpo | I will prepare you something hot so you get back into your body | A hot drink helps synchronize one’s parts in case of strong emotions, or a drink of alcoholic beverages to react
¿Te duele la cabeza? Ponte hojas de coca o papas en rodajas en la frente | Do you have a headache? Put coca leaves with saliva or sliced potatoes on your head | The effect of saliva on coca leaves activates agents that penetrates the temple
Tomaremos sultanita para que su envidia se vaya | Let’s drink sultana (dried seedless coffee) so their envy goes away | Envy energies affect stopping the impetus of the person receiving them and it can be dissolved drinking sultana
Hay que mantear para que se coloque la guagua | We have to move her with a blanket so the baby gets in place | Technic used before giving birth to put the baby in place, sometimes with an ‘aguayo’ or a blanket that moves the mother’s body driving the baby upside down in the belly
El frío está en sus huesos | Cold is in his/her bones | Body imbalance that cancels motor skills when the Cold force (not the cold, its force) penetrates the bones
Que la guagua no mire el cerro, se va a llevar su alma | Don’t let the baby look at the hill, it will take his/her soul | Interacting forces between nature and species
¡Tanto que ha reido! Seguro va a llorar | She/he laughed so much! She/he is going to cry | The compensation of energies and forces that unfold looking for balance, like ‘whatever goes up, must come down’
Andá a dejar tu pena en el ch’ijicito | Leave your pain in the green grass | In Aymara ch’iji = green grass | Grass absorbs energies under the feet
No llores vas a agriar la comida | Do not cry you are going to turn the food sour | Moods of the cooking person as energies going into the food being prepared
Rebajame caserita. Responde: No puedo mi primera venta es | Cut the price for me seller. She answers: I cannot this is my first sale | The first sale determines income of the day and often it is separated as talisman money not used even when giving change. If this sale is given away, they give away the income of the day
Están caminando arriba, prendé la vela | They are walking up there, light up a candle | Noises on the roof of lost presences in the shadows, the candle lights up the roads so they withdraw to their places
Señora, ¿me puede ver en coca? | Lady, can you see me in coca? | Use of coca leaves as an oracle to communicate with unseen worlds
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Jallalla La Paz!
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