Lectures: 167
Human beings have always had the need to understand what is happening around them.
In America, the heritage of the Amerindians, Africans, Europeans and Mediterranean cultures distinguishes us, and it is of fundamental importance to know that legacy to understand the present and know where we are headed as peoples.
The myths are related, danced, filmed or painted to enrich the imagination, understand nature, favor the coexistence of beings and interpret reality.
All the myths and cosmogonies provide a refined set of ideas about what a culture, a society or a human group understands about the origin of the cosmos with its beings and things, and the evolution of life.
Other human myths guide towards problem solutions or the understanding of behaviors; and the arts are continually nourished by that great heritage for the creation of invented universes and leave traces.
Mythology, when transmitted from one man to another, and in that process increasing, enriching through time, recreating itself through the creativity of each one who communicates it, becomes an invaluable heritage of Humanity. It is the legacy of orality to writing and the common human inheritance of a shared initial root.
Through mythology, a civilization delivers the set of knowledge, beliefs and knowledge of cultures, transmitting wisdom about men and the world that surrounds them. Increasing the possibilities of making reality more habitable and finding solutions to all human affairs; this is the case from the beginning of time to the present day.
In addition, they encourage the common unconscious inheritance of the human to remain in order to ensure the path of life to beings. The myth justifies its conservation by transmitting from mouth to mouth the ideas of human groups about the origins of the universe, the development of men in relation to their environment, the functioning of the human mind and affections, plus everything related to the human condition.
And when oral myths become written, they become literary creations or expressions that enrich and keep alive the human heritage of interpretation of reality and this promotes respect and knowledge of the common heritage that we inherit from our ancestors, belonging to all cultures of human diversity.
That is why, for every human group, it is of great importance to know the cultural interpretations of the sacred and the profane, which their ancestors forged, and to decipher this fabric of thoughts about the origins and development of the world, allows us to understand ourselves as part of a whole. and explain personal and collective singularities. Faith, rituals and music are a link of love, the lyrics of a Brazilian samba tell us.
The imaginary of the popular world -of especially peasant origin- is reproduced, recreated and transmitted through traditional tales and legends. These are oral stories that go from generation to generation throughout the entire territory. The myths and legends, express, with the leadership of the people, the magical thought of deep Chile.
In the fields, mountains and towns by the sea throughout Chile, these stories are passed from parents to children and from grandparents to grandchildren, stories that explain natural phenomena and centuries-old beliefs, leaving traces of the rich worldview of our peoples. ancestral. Delve into our history and learn about the stories, myths and legends of Chile.
And it is that some say that it really happened, others that it was the product of the collective imagination and, the least, that it was simply a dream.
The truth is that the stories came together, they developed and added more details over time, populating the memory of Chileans, the magical thinking of each one and now we decided to share them so that they can begin to travel the world.
Oreste Plath and Floridor Pérez have been part of those who have compiled Chilean myths and legends, searching and listening in the fields, mountains and towns by the sea throughout Chile, stories that are passed from generation to generation that explain phenomena of nature and centuries-old beliefs, leaving a trace of the rich worldview of our ancestral peoples and realizing that the popular imagination colored reality, depending on its geographical context.
Andrés Montero and Diego Donoso Suazola, in the illustrations, join this generation of compilers of Chilean myths and legends through the book “Bestiario de Chile” published by SM this year.
With this book and its excellent presentation, it is impossible not to imagine each being since they are very well illustrated, giving each being an environment appropriate to its history.
This book is literally a journey through the desert, the mountains and the coast; by the sea, lagoons, swamps, forests in short throughout the Chilean geography.
What myths can be read? The one who talks about witches who go out for a walk on Friday nights; or that of the fluttering of a cursed bird that breaks through the night or that of a desperate woman looking for her missing children.
The reader will find beings of the day and of the night and that are beyond our knowledge or understanding. And best of all, these stories are told by the locals who are the ones who know the most about the stories of their land, the silences, and above all those ghostly beings that are part of the identity of those who live in this long and narrow country called Chili.
