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Yine
Interviews
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VI.
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Tales and Personal History |
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Interview with : Sra. Albertina Cosichinari
Interviewers : Steve Frankham/Anja Stijnen
Date : 13-july-01 (13:40 – 14:40)
The Tigre and The Girl (Tigre means Jaguar)
Long ago there were many jaguars. One day a jaguar stole a girl, while
she was just a child, and took her far away into the forest. The
girl's mother searched for her everywhere, but didn't even encounter
footprints. While the years passed the mother lost all hope of finding
her daughter and she becomes quite old in the process.
However, one day the daughter returns home. The child had not changed
much: she looked no older, just a bit fatter; she had eaten well while
with the jaguars. The daughter saw how old her mother had become and
it surprised her: she thought she had only been living with the
jaguars for 3 days, meanwhile, it had been years. The daughter decides
to return to the jaguars and so she did, never to return home again.
El Chuyanchaki
The Yine people in Brazil have seen chuyanchakis a few times. They are
dwarfs with large chests and arms: they are quite strong mountain
dwellers. Every once in a while they'll bring a man or a woman far
into the forest, where the trail ends so that they can not return
home.
The woman's father was hunting parrots. The parrots started squawking
like crazy because they had seen a chuyanchaki. The father met up with
him. The chuyanchaki did nothing, he just wanted to talk.
El chuyanchaki talked like a human but he wasn't: they are considered
to be the devil. Although good chuyanchakis exist as well, so they
say.
The Giant and the Woman
In our grandparent's time there lived a giant man whose name was Gigía.
He lived in the forest. One day a man and a woman go into the mountain
to hunt. They see a bright light shining from far away. The man says
to his wife, “Sit down and wait for me. I'm going to check out this
light.” So the woman sat there while the man left to investigate. The
woman watched the light getting closer and closer and all of a sudden
the giant appeared: the light that was shining so brightly had been
his eye. The giant took the woman. When her husband returned he didn't
see his wife. Through the years he searched for her, and one day he
found her, sleeping in the giant's hovel. Still wearing the same skirt
she had on the day she disappeared. The man woke his wife up in order
to take her home, but she no longer wanted to live with him (her
husband). The man went away sad.
The man decided to kill the giant for stealing his wife. He rounded up
his family and they went to the giant´s hovel. There, both were found
sleeping. The man whispered to his wife to leave, but she ignored him.
So there was no other choice other than kill them both. The man and
his family closed off the opening with rubber and firewood and they
lit it on fire in order to burn them both. When the giant woke up, he
tried to put the fire out with his urine, but it was already too late:
the giant and the wife had died in the fire.
Personal History
Mrs. Albertina originally comes from the Yine community in Brazil.
When she was 11 her mother died. Another woman took her to Pucalpa in
Peru where she lived for 10 years. She lived another 10 years with the
Yine community in Urubamba.
She says that in her town in Brazil they only consume what they raise
themselves: pigs, chickens and cows. In Diamante they don't raise many
animals, it's more common to hunt and fish. Albertina wants to return
to Brazil and take her children with her. She believes that she'll be
able to find work there. Also, she states that she has no family in
Diamante.
Albertina says that in the 1970s, pisco was introduced into the
culture of Diamante, when the missionaries arrived. Since then men are
frequently found drunk. Also, there are women who drink too, but they
generally drink less. Men work in order to be able to buy pisco and
beer, while women work in order to be able to buy food and clothing.
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