Mirrors (86 page)

When someone dies, when his time is up, what happens to the wanderings, desirings, and speakings that were called by his name?

Among the Indians of the upper Orinoco, he who dies loses his name. His ashes are stirred into plantain soup or corn wine and everybody eats. After the ceremony no one ever names the dead person again: the dead one, now living in other bodies, called by other names, wanders, desires, and speaks.

DANGER IN THE NIGHT

Sleeping, she saw us.

Helena dreamed we were waiting in line at an airport.

A long line where every passenger had under the arm the pillow on which he or she had slept the night before.

The pillows were sent through a dream-reading machine.

The machine detected any dangerous dreams that threatened to disturb the peace.

LOST AND FOUND

The twentieth century, which was born proclaiming peace and justice, died bathed in blood. It passed on a world much more unjust than the one it inherited.

The twenty-first century, which also arrived heralding peace and justice, is following in its predecessor’s footsteps.

In my childhood, I was convinced that everything that went astray on earth ended up on the moon.

But the astronauts found no sign of dangerous dreams or broken promises or hopes betrayed.

If not on the moon, where might they be?

Perhaps they were never misplaced.

Perhaps they are in hiding here on earth. Waiting.

INDEX OF NAMES

Abbeville

Abdallah, Susan

Abdullah

Abdullah, Sarhan

Abdullah, Yasmin

ABC

Acapulco

Achaemenes

Acheson, Dean

Achilles

Acosta, Josep de

Acuña, Cristóbal de

Adam

Adams, John

Aegisthus

Aeneas

Aeschylus

Afghanistan

Africa

Agamemnon

Agrippina

Aguilera, Griselda

Akkra

Al Qaeda

Alabama

Aleijadinho the Cripple,
see
Lisboa, Antonio Francisco

Alexander, Alfonso

Alexander VI

Alexander the Great

Alexandria

Algeria

Alhambra

Ali, Imam

Ali, Muhammad

Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammed

Al-Kamil, Sultan

Allende, Salvador

Al-Ma’arri, Abu Ali

Almagro, Diego de

Alps

Al-Sukkar

Aluzinnu

Alvarado, Pedro de

Álvarez Argüelles, Father Antonio

Alwar, Maharaja of

Ama, José Feliciano

Amazon

Amazons

Ambrose, Saint

Amecameca

American Colonization Society

Americas

Amherst

Amherst, Lord Jeffrey

Amset

Amsterdam

Anaxagoras

Andalusia

Anderson, John Henry

Andes

Andrade, José Leandro

Anenecuilco

Angela of Foligno, Saint

Anti-Imperialist League

Antilles

Antiochus

Apaza, Gregoria

Aphrodite

Apollo

Apollonius, Saint

Aponte, Carlos

Arabia

Ararat, Mount

Archimedes

Arcimboldo, Giuseppe

Ardila Gómez, Rubén

Arenal, Concepción

Argentina

Argos

Arias-Salgado, Gabriel

Aristophanes

Aristotle

Arizona

Arkah

Arles

Armstrong, Louis

Arnaud-Amaury, Archbishop

Arno River

Artemis

Artigas, José

Asera

Asia

Aspasia

d’Aspremont Lynden, Harold

Assisi

Assumar, Count of

Assyria

Astiz, Alfredo

Asturias

Atahualpa

Athena

Athens

Atlanta

Atlantis

Atreus

Augustine, Saint

Augustus

Auschwitz

Austin

Austin, Stephen

Australia

Austria

Averroes

Avicenna

Ayesha

Babel, Isaac

Babylon

Bacchus

Bachelet, Michelle

Baden-Powell, Colonel Robert

Baghdad

Baker, Josephine

Baku

Bakunin, Mikhail

Balestrino, Esther

Balkans

Bangladesh

Barcelona

Barnard, Christian

Baroda, Maharaja of

Bartola

BASF

Basra

Bassa, Ferrer

Bastidas, Micaela

Bastidas, Rodrigo de

Battle, José

Baudelaire, Charles

Bayer

Bayley, George

Beethoven, Ludvig von

Behmai

Beijing

Belgium

Bell, hermanos,
see
Brontë, sisters

Benedict XVI

Bengal

Berger, John

Berlin

Bernard, Saint

Bernardo de Tolosa

Bernhardt, Sarah

Bertelsmann

Betances, Ramón

Bethlehem

Beveridge, Albert

Bezerra, João

Béziers

Bharatpur, Mahraja of

Bhopal

Bierce, Ambrose

Bingen

Bioho, Domingo

Bismarck

Black Hills

Black Panthers

Black Sea

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich

BMW

Boccaccio

Boeotia

Bogotá

Bolden, Buddy

Bolivia

Bolívar, Simón

Bologna

Bombay

Bonaparte, Napoleon

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich

Borges, Jorge Luis

Borgia, Rodrigo,
see
Alexander VI Born, Bertrand de

Borromeo, Carlo

Bosch

Bosch, Hieronymus

Bosporus

Boss, Hugo

Boston

Botticelli, Sandro

Bouzid, Saâl

Bowring, John

Bragança y Bourbon, Pedro de Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim de,
see
Pedro I

Brandenburg, Archbishop of

Brazil

Brecht, Bertolt

Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme

British Museum

Brontë sisters

Brooklyn

Brunete

Bruno, Giordano

Brussels

Brutus, Marcus

Büchner, Georg

Buckingham, Duke of

Buenos Aires

Buffalo Bill

Bukharin, Nikolai

Bull of Heaven

Bülow, Chancellor von

Burkina Faso

Bush, George

Bush, George W.

Bush, Prescott

Byron, Ada

Byron, Lord

Byzantium

Cádiz

Caeiro, Alberto

Cairo

Calcutta

California

Callender, James

Callixtus III

Calvin, John

Cambodia

Campaoré, Blaise

Campos, Álvaro de

Cancuc

Cang Jie

Cangas

Canning, George

Capetown

Capua

Carabanchel Prison

Caribbean

Carlos, John

Caron, George

Carrera, José Miguel

Cartagena de Indias

Carter, Robert

Carvallo, Luis Alfonso de

Casaldáliga, Pedro

Casasola, Augustín Víctor

Cascais

Cascia

Caspian Sea

Cassandra

Castañega, Father Martín de

Castelli, Juan José

Castile

Castro, Fidel

Catamarca

Catherine, Saint

Catherine the Great

Catholic Monarchs,
see
Isabella the Catholic and Ferdinand the Catholic

Cauac Sky

Caucasus

CBS

Cedar Forest

Central America

Cervantes, Miguel de

Ceuta

Ceylon

Chagall, Marc

Chalco

Champollion, Jean François

Chamula

Chaplin, Charles

Chapultepec

Charlemagne

Charles I of Spain and V of Germany (Emperor Charles)

Charles I

Charles II

Chernobyl

Chiapas

Chicago

Chicomóztoc

Chile

Chimalhuacan

Chin, Emperor

Chin Shi Huang

China

China Famine Relief Fund

Chiquita Brands

Churchill, Winston

CIA

Cicero

Cimabue, Giovanni

Claudel, Camille

Claudel, Paul

Claudius, Emperor

Clay, Cassius,
see
Muhammad Ali

Cleopatra

Clinton, Bill

Clytemnestra

Cobo, Bernabé

Coca-Cola

Cochabamba

Coimbra, University of

Coleman, James

Colombia

Colorado

Colorado Springs

Colorado State University

Columbia Records

Columbus, Cristopher

Compagnie de Guinée

Conan Doyle, Arthur

Condorcanqui, José Gabriel

Congo

Congo, Democratic Republic of

Conrad, Joseph

Constantine, Emperor

Constantinople

Cook, James

Cooper, Gary

Copán

Copernicus, Nicolaus

Córdoba

Corinth

Corrientes

Corsica

Cortés, Hernán

Costa Rica

Crete

Crimea

Croatia

Cuba

Cuitláhuac

Curie, Irene

Curie, Marie

Curie, Pierre

Cuscatlán

Custer, George

Cuvier, Georges

Cuzco

Cybele

Cyprus

Cyrus the Great

D’Ailly, Pierre

Daimler-Benz

D’Alembert, Jean

Dalí, Salvador

Damascus

Damietta

Dantas, Lucas

Dante

Danton, Georges-Jacques

Dardanelles

Darfur

Darius, King

Darwin, Charles

David, Jacques-Louis

Da Vinci, Leonardo

De Gouge, Olympe

De Olid, Cristóbal

Defoe, Daniel

Del Monte

Demeter

Deng Xiaoping

D’Eu, Count

Deutsche Bank

Devi, Phoolan

Dhaka

Dhouda of Gascony

Diana

Díaz, José León

Dickinson, Emily

Diderot, Denis

Digby, William

Diodorus

Dionysus

Dnieper River

Dolcino

Domagk, Gerhard

Domingo de Silos, Saint

Dominican Republic

Dominis, John

Domon, Alice

Don Quijote

Douglas-Home, Lord Alec

Dow Chemical

Drake, Francis

Drew, Charles

Drummond Limited

Dua-Khety

Dublin

Duero River

Dulles, Allen

Dumont, Alberto Santos

Dumuzi

Duquetéonie

Durga

Dzhugashvili, Iosif

Dzhugashvili, Yakov

Easter Island

Echo

Edinburgh

Edison, Thomas Alva

Edward, Prince

Egypt

Einstein, Albert

Eisenhower, Dwight

Eisenstein, Sergei

El Alto

El Dorado

El Escorial

Elbarieh

Electra

Elgin, Lord

Elgin, Lord (son)

Eligia

Elizabeth, Queen

El Salvador

Engel, Georg

Engels, Friederich

England

Enkidu

Enola Gay

Epicurius

Ernst, Max

Ethiopia

Euclid

Eunus

Euphrates

Euripides

Europe

Eve

Exû

Ezekiel

Falklands Islands

Fanta

FBI

Faisal, Prince

Fellini, Ana

Ferdinand VII

Ferdinand the Catholic

Fierro, Martín

Figari, Pedro

Figueiredo e Melo, Pedro Américo de

Finn, Huck

Firestone

Fischer, Adolph

Fischer, Eugen

Fisk, Robert

Flanders

Flaubert, Gustave

Fleming, Alexander

Florence