Sky People by Ardy Sixkiller Clarke

Author:Ardy Sixkiller Clarke [Clarke, Ardy Sixkiller]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Page Books
Published: 2014-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The Star Men of the Guatemalan Jungle

For centuries there have been legends of giants in the jungles of Guatemala. Creation stories reveal the first race on Earth were giants. There have been early accounts of giants among the indigenous populations of Mesoamerica. For example, Antonio Pigafetta, Ferdinand Magellan’s assistant, detailed various encounters with giants in Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative of the First Circumnavigation. He wrote of encountering giants who were so tall that the sailors traveling with Magellan only came up to their waist. Throughout their encounters, the giants repeatedly pointed to the sky and wanted to know if Magellan came from there, indicating, perhaps, that they were accustomed to visitors from the stars.

In this chapter, an elder from a small, isolated, indigenous village told the story of giant Star Men who frequented the jungle and abducted women and children. His story put another spin on the giants from the sky.

“According to the villagers, Stephens and Catherwood hacked their way through the jungle near this very road,” my driver, Emiliano, said, as we drove toward the Mexican border.

“I read that it was a harrowing trip,” I said.

“When I was a boy, my grandmother told me that giants roamed these mountains. Their companions were white jaguars.” He paused and slowed the van as he maneuvered a hairpin curve on the steep, mountainous Guatemalan road heading toward the Mexican border. “Some say the giants could wrench off the head of a man, swallow it, and spit out his soul like watermelon seeds. When that happened, you were doomed to wander the earth forever. Even today huge bones are found all over the jungle. The farmers believe they belong to the giants.”

“Do you think they could be mastodon bones? An archaeologist told me that mastodons have been found in Guatemala.”

“A French archaeologist at Utatlán claimed the large bones were from a mastodon,” he said, “but the people around here ignore him. They know the giants are real. They’ve seen them with their own eyes.”

“Do you mean the giants still live in the jungle?” I asked.

“They’re still here. From time to time people see them. They come to the villages—to steal women and make them have their babies. Then they go away, and we do not see them for a long time.”

“These are myths, correct?” We slowed for a small village. We were so high in the mountains that we were driving in and out of the clouds.

“No Señora Doctora. No story. The real thing.” Suddenly children appear and ran toward the van chanting: “Emiliano, Emiliano.” He slowed and handed them hard candy and coins out the window of the van.

“Do you know those children?” I asked.

“Oh sí. My family lives in the valley below.” Pulling to the side of the road, Emiliano continued. “You cannot see my village from here, but it is the place I was born, and the place I will die.” I peered out the side of the van but the jungle below was too dense to see anything. “There is no highway to my village.

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