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7/23/1956 - The Callejon and the Santa by William H. MacLeish

NOT FOR PUBLICATION INSTITUTE OF CUKKENT WOKLD AFFAIKS WH Uphill Farm The Callej6n Santa Conway assachusets July Walter S Rogers Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Rogers The woman She durin killed honor death There money luxuries fresh perhaps wooden coffin The woman relatives living hacienda could afford anything alcohol bearers chanters Therefore carried cemetery woman swathed rough shroud lashed stretcher What smell little Even altitude remain above ground Thee priest hacienda chapel tains there chapels priests The chapel doors closed woman party bearers brought portal placed stones The chanter screwed buged uechua translation Catholic burial service pinted filthy pages It necessary should order handful spectstors_the concentrstion physical effort involved eding The chanter threw wiled helper lesned against tried follow chant He drunk Out tying become professional chante himself One bearer stared shroud crooked poles stretcher He tched himself carefully under poncho joined colleagues shade chapel Soon chanter became impatient start funeral march pushed shoved bearers until woman supported shoulders Then bearers followed chanter across gound toward cemetery The ground rough because drunk stumbled reeled The woman almost thrown several occasions The going party halted after hundred shade The aguardinte bottle brought liquid poured metal Each drank passed empty bottle group Aacienda officials standing funeral party A stocky legged poured liquor those wanted spoke Spanish This Indians spoke anything Quechua Well lingual remembered woman wedding He sponsor wedding It enough money WH slaughtering The bearers chanters struggled their They giggled places raised woman their shoulders again Down lines eucslyptus bridge cemetery could decide listen chanter An argument broke between bearers glared other across shrouded woman The chanter fovard again while postured filled lungs another tortured A women girls carrying flowers followed processionand giggled bearers stumbled their burden Near cemetery began dance circle woman whirled In staggeing weaving entered burial ground The woman therefore burial party spectators compunction mourn death If corpse young child there would equal sorrow young children directly place It young woman whose brings sadness people demise young educes labor force comunit The woman relatively useless there little cause On other funeral provided chanters bearers opportunity quicklyd thoroughly drtuk The burial woman place Callej6n Huaylas Alle Huaylas lovely valley north central section sieza There beauty greens eucalyptus willow sunbursts Scotch broom growing river there beauty patchwork fields steep slopes tongues whest pasture lands But these sights siera traveller becomes accus tomed Ther trees flower rives slopes cultivated ridelie sheltered valleys Cuzco Caamarca Calle6n Huaylas other valleys black milled rocks white jutting peaks Cordillera Blanca Cordil Per A ainsto greens golds lower valley scaed slopes black peaks unbelievsbly wlite upper There south Hondoy closer Quesada mountain Beyond _uascar north giant Whether distorted cloud banners stream flanks stsnding clear hulking twenty thousand monster looms large stretch valley People arcaa Yungay their lives sweep snowfields crumpled tongues glaciers slopes The mountain their their songs Hacienda Vicos Callej6n uaylas Roed tunnel Santa Caon river Dam destroyed flash flood Boulders central unicular bringing supplies workings vertical tubes Huallanc Huascarn stands whiteness Above plaza Yungay Ad white As white Huascarn I would there To abandon And never I again An ungrateful arcar When sunset fires lesser peaks Huascarn still holds light In country tains Huascarn The sprawling glaciers Cordillera Blanca beautiful caused deaths thousands eeple Callej6n Huaylas Glacial morrains across valleys range water melting backs ponds lakes One natural earth canyon above Huars capital Department Ancash The water picked boulders small houses through canyon Before huaracinos happening flood through heavily populated sections Not house after flood Today swath boulders The exact number deaths caused flood known estimates several thousand As safeguard against repetitions tragedy glacial tAroughout constantly inspected weaker destroyed controlled dynamiting Themeis lonely guard equipped With transmitter posted shores above Huars ready warning should dambreak again Huars central portion Callej6n Huaylas south rises until passes elusive boundary beyond which certain bushes almost flowers refuse where yellow grasses carpet depressions between hills There highest valley small marshy Conococha settlement Beer store settlement tastes musty thirteen thousand altitude The southern peaks Cordillera Blanca sawteeth above except wavelets there sound nothing moves The altitude vegetation ideal alpaca there animals yellow valley floor In place Santa river meandering brook tracino north following sloping valley Green water flowing scores glaciers swells brook river drops eucalyptus plantations golden slopes Scotch The Santa becomes river which irrigates several hundred kilometers valley final break hrough mountains eventually drive turbines giant hydroelectric project Huallanca At northern Callej6n ranges WHvl Black Cordillera White Cordillera merge tangle peaks blind valleys Through mountain Santa sliced blade canyon It Caon Pato Canyon Duck The Peruvian Corporation Santa built narrow river corridor connect hydroelectric poject Callej6n From level possible short stretches canyon bottom where Santa roils tight curves sound angry water forcing through spills sluices When possible weight caught between walls thousands bottom twenty apart When there Caon Psto fetid The canyon another proof impossible accomplished regularly Peruvian building Clinging niches canyon burrowing through spurs whitewater river below roadbed toward Huallnca grades which attest rigin roadbed initially railroad system which would co_uected Callej6n Huaylas Chimbote Now railhead Huallanca climbing Callej6n doubtful Chimbote CallejSn rsilroad bcome reality The flash floods Callej6n taken their canyon Six hydroelectric project workers putting finishing touches thrown across canyon bottom Suddenly canyon upstream vomited flood water Santa channel working doomed The flash flood great chunk steel masonry before buried tructure under boulders Long steel beams dragged ownstream thirty miles The flood tangle tracks Chimbote Huallanca railroad leave snarls steel rails rustin river Even today kilometers tunnels chambers completed flash floods still cause headaches among project engineers The Santa Corporation installation Hual great where canyon walls hillsides A funicular railway hauls slopes vertical tubes inspection galleries miles unnels The tunnels dusty glare working lights sweat heavy instructions Spanish F French industry invested heavily project Electricity generated turbines mounted their chamber electric furnaces Per first steel located Chimbote French engineers Huallanca French American heavy equipmen properly installed Even strange torrent gutteral Parisisn French profanity echoing along corridors foothills Peruvian Andes WHi There travel Huallanca train The narrow gauge railroad follows Santa flows widening valleys Chimbote The Santa valley floor turns arable first small fields appear Then mountains river splits countless channels idles toward Here valley green sugar banana burst bolls hundreds acres cotton plants bright spangles light afternoon The grinding mills villages haciendas stand among rectangles fields along valley roads field hands walking slowly The touched night rises swiftly behind mountains The train passes through hills bounding valley steel shutters pulled windows falling stones entering On beyond limits irrigation monotonous desert lights Chimbote distance marking coast fringing From weedy Conococha channeled mouth north Chimbote hundred kilometers The Santa small river short But inhabitants lower valley Santa great giver vital water which allows midst dessicated Sincerely William H lacLeish Received New York