August’s book review- “Life and Death in the Andes- on the trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries” by Kim MacQuarrie
Life and Death in the Andes is MacQuarrie’s fifth cultural-travel expose, following his well-regarded “Last Days of the Incas.” I have not read his other material, but from seeing the long passion he describes for the Andes, Peru, and South America, it was immediately clear that MacQuarrie views the geography of the region is a similar passion as we do with our pursuit of documentation in South America to the World. And he puts his body into the place, to really walk through onsite context that makes the subject matter he details come to life.
As a quick recap, this book takes a north to south trip along the spine of the Andes, linking the travel together with story investigations into really over all the less savory personalities, like the drug-lord Escobar, but also digs into questions regarding luminous researchers such as Charles Darwin and Hiram Bingham. Two radical and criminal Marxists, Che Guevarra and Abimael Guzman, are examined for their opaque endings. In way of full disclosure, the tales of the thugs and sadists (bandits and revolutionists) are not topics I find interesting and therefore beginning the book I had doubts as to whether I wanted to read it or not- I will let you know at the end of this review whether I made the right choice.
Chapter one covering Colombia, and the beginning of a long trip down the length of the South American continent, goes in search of firsthand accounts through interviews with the people that were involved with the capture of Pablo Escobar. The drug lords’ home-base or territorial center was in Medellin, Colombia, which is a remarkably nice part of the country. Today also goes by the name of “Silicon Valley” for all of the plastic surgery employed by women of the city. The wealthy part of the city features a main drag called the Golden Mile that is lined by casinos that to this day still launder drug money. The account marks how Escobar was hunted down and killed which is interesting but at the same time leaves one with the feeling that justice was not really served given the thousands of lives lost from the evil of one man.
Next the book jumps to the Galapagos Islands, which we learn the name is from archaic Spanish, a term that was used for tortoises, making their name completely understandable. This chapter gives some firsthand descriptions of the islands that in general interrupt the historical account of Darwin’s research and shortcomings. It is offset by interjecting the non-evolutionary position of several of MacQuarrie’s travel companions which to me came across as being space fillers. I liked the way the account brings the reader through Darwin’s perceptions and discoveries. At times this analysis comes across as being perhaps too critical. I have read some of Darwin’s writings, and he did provide other insights on the nature of The Pacific Islands transitioning into reef ringed atolls through subsidence. It is worth noting that original first publications of Darwin’s “Origin of Species” mark some of the most expensive books that one can buy, if available on the resale market. This chapter provides needed relief from the heavy topics covered in the first one, and a pleasant break before the next Andean human nature tragedy.
Chapter three covers the leader of the Sendero Luminoso of Peru, how his communist civil war developed, how it was enacted with nothing civilized about it, and then how just over a decade later he was captured hiding out in a Lima apartment building. The presentation was sufficiently well written to maintain my interest is something that I was already very familiar with from my own experiences working in Peru spread across these last 21 years. It does not encapsulate the entire history of the terrorism that killed so many people in Peru, it is more of a selective snapshot giving some of the highlights.
In chapter four we are provided with another respite covering the history of the discovery of Machu Picchu, and a detailing of all of the human errors made by its legitimate founder Hiram Bingham. This is a Cliff-notes version of its history, for a more complete account see Mark Abrams “Turn right at Machu Picchu.” The quick succession listing of Bingham’s artifact thefts perhaps does not do credit to the romantic inspiration he provided the world that place these hidden old ruins in Peru into a multi-million-dollar tourist industry. The litany of his violations removing artifacts has been repaid several magnitudes of order in value by the sheer amount of money tourist spend visiting the place. In a rather inappropriate way, ending this section by a quote from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda had upset my Peruvian wife, saying the Chilean’s have nothing to do with Peru and that quote should not have been used.
Chapter five called “Ice maidens, volcanoes, and Incas (Peru) takes a muddled turn rummaging through several Peruvian Andes cultural depictions mainly focused about the weavers around Cusco. The interspersed fictional account of a young Inca woman did not hold my attention and honestly, I skipped these sections of the book. He adds an account of finding the Inca sacrificed teenage girl on top of Ampato volcano by John Reinhard. Then a detour about the convent in Arequipa was covered that really did not tie any of the chapter’s material together.
Chapter six moves down to southernmost Peru, in almost a Star Trekkian transported beam way, suddenly the topic being covered is Lake Titicaca crammed together with Inca gods popping into existence, the hypotheses of Thor Heyerdahl regarding peopling of South America, and those living at the floating islands on the lake. This mishmash of various commentaries of Andean and other ancient peoples combined with some present-day colorful depictions of the author’s hostel and the people he meets was less than a compelling read.
Chapter seven and eight moves down to Bolivia with the pretext of following in the footsteps of the bandit Sundance kid and the communist revolutionary Che Guevarra. If you are knowing to these stories then you will probably like these sections of the book. You get some more quotes, more background writing, more firsthand notes, and visits with people having some interconnection with the events. With movies about both, and pop-culture idolization, the ideals behind these men were hollow. Many Latino socialists today still place Che upon a pedestal of “fighting the cause”, a cause that is fundamentally morally bankrupt for the devaluation the individual and freedom. Why make celebrities of those willing to break the Gold Rule, to force violence upon other people? The bears no social justice, no betterment of civilization, only pain and suffering.
The final longer chapter nine goes over tribes and exploration of southernmost tip of South America with the Yamana, and accounts from Darwin’s travels. This is quite the shift from Bolivia, the center of the Andes where the mountains are widest, to the fjord lands and islands of really sun-Antarctic geography, the southernmost portion of the continent where the mountains taper into a low-lying narrow series of peaklets straddled by ice sheets. A lot of territory and interesting things are skipped by doing so.
This compilation book running across many human tales in the Andes resounds with MacQuarrie’s training as an anthropologist. The work is people oriented exploring aspects of murderers, communists, historic scientists, and several topical local cultural corners of the continent. It is not a travel log senso stricto- the chapters lurch from one topic to another in a disjointed way only being related in their Andean context while moving from north to south. I started reading Life and Death in the Andes with higher expectations, finding the writing all done very well, and yet the disjointed nature of switching topics failed to tie together the work. It is excerpts about notorious people that visited or lived in the Andes. If the material was all new and fresh to me instead of being things I have long read about and in many cases traveled around then this review would probably be more supportive. Therefore, I can neither recommend or suggest against reading this book; if you are just staring the journey about Andean tales then it is worth reading whereas if you are more familiar with the topics you would probably be better served finding full books about each of the separate topics and reading those.
James M. Wise- August, 2019
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South America seems to refuse to show its inexhaustible creative force.
