Welcoming of Columbus

The fire, now burnt into slowly dying out coals, give a faint red glow to three dark figures sitting transfixed around it. As the wind begins to fan the coals to give flame, a figure rises with a hobble as the five casts a hunched-backed shadow. Her hair flows into the blowing wind as she faces the two men sitting motionlessly on the ground. She cries out with a voice that cracks the silence but yet blends with the sound of the wind, “We are the Arawak. “We are the last!” she says with a voice full of sad bitterness. As the fire reflected in her eyes, the eyes of a mother, she said, “The plague will be here soon. Perhaps the earth will deliver us.” The two men looked up to her and she began:

My sons I will tell you of the day this plague was brought to the shore. I welcomed them with nourishment from the earth and peace. I gave peace to those who know no peace. The have raped the mothers, enslaved the fathers and killed my children. My children, I hear their cries in the wind. Why did I welcome these pale men? Listen and I will tell you what I said on the last day of my people, the day these savages came into our presence.

Greetings, may the mother of the earth, wind and fire protect you. As the mother of the Arawak I welcome you to this land. This earth has given us life for we were born out of her. Now she greets you with a gift of food. We tend the land and she gives forth food for life. Eat and be happy and may the paleness of your face depart.

You have come a great distance carried on the endless ocean, for you smell of salt. We wish to offer you comfort from your long journey. There is fresh water near by, we will guide you to it when I have finished.

I am curious of your ways. I desire to hear about your people. You speak with a strange voice and wear strange coverings. I can see that your ways are different than ours. We will also teach you our way, the way we gain life and wisdom from the earth.

When you learn our ways, you are welcome to remain among us. We live in peace with our family. We have an overabundance of life to give. If you do not wish to learn our ways and live at peace we bid that you depart. The way we have learned from the earth has given us life. To dishonor that way is death.

When the Arawak grew from the earth there were some that grew the wrong way. The twisted ones were selfish with the land. They wanted all of it. The true Arawak shared the land and its fruit. The twisted ones made the Arawak work the land and killed those who did not obey them. Mother earth became angry with the twisted ones and they began to fight one another. Then she swallowed them up into herself. Now we live in peace . . .

The voice ended with a shriek that seemed to linger in the air, carried on the wind. The last remaining coals emitted the dying remains of their light.