Yesterday I spent the day at the Maleku Indigenous Reserve in Guatuso. My guide for this adventure was a Maleku Indian with the Spanish name of Elias Elizondo Castro, but whose Maleku name is Jaquima, which means lover of nature. And Jaquima really did love nature. He took me on a walk through a nature preserve that the Malekus are trying to reforest and restore to the condition that their ancestors enjoyed. Jaquima was able to explain the medicinal and dietary qualities of a whole host of plants. The Malekus are a tribe known for their love of nature. There are only about 650 left in Costa Rica. They are extraordinary artisans. At the end of the visit, Jaquima and other members of his family put on a ancient ceremonial demonstration. It was a ceremony in homage to the natural world that sustains them. At the end Jaquima made a little speech, in Spanish, that basically points out that all humans are basically the same…the only difference is what we hold in our hearts and heads. The truth in that simple statement startled me and made me think. All the destruction that takes place in this world at the hands of human beings really does come down to differences in the way we think, doesn’t it? The way we think about politics, or religion, or our different customs, habits and traditions. We don’t like people who think differently and often that dislike manifests in an attempt to either change those thoughts, by force or persuasion, to be in conformity with our own, or to just eliminate the difference altogether. The fact that there were once thousands of Malekus and now only a few hundred is a testimony to that. The fact that the virgin forest they once hunted and gathered in is now gone, is a testimony to that. A pattern of thought and action that is both in harmony with what we all have in common and in harmony with the natural world that sustains our very existence, may be a better way than a competitive pattern that proclaims “fall in line, or be defeated.” For the truth is when one group of humans suffer defeat at the hands of this Draconian drama of life that we impose upon ourselves unnecessarily, we all suffer. In the little village near Guatuso, the prophet Jaquima speaks words of wisdom and harmony that should resound in the hearts and minds of a divided and defeated humanity.
Maleku Video from CostaRicanArtisans.com
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