Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle
Page 62
13
“Look out, shit! It’s the Fat Pig!”
14
“Look up there! The Fat Pig is overhead!”
15
“It’s the vultures. That’s how they look at us, and then they bomb us.”
16
A finca is a property.
17
Corners.
18
Cooking area.
19
Because he dealt with “the masses,” meaning the peasants, the people living in the region.
20
A partner or girlfriend in FARC jargon.
21
Meaning “bull’s blood,” the name of a tree in Amazonia, with a wood particularly prized for its easy combustibility.
22
The bushes.
23
Shelf.
24
Rodents.
25
A large tree, the Amazonian version of the African baobab, it can grow up to 230 feet tall, and is also known as a kapok.
26
Communist university named after Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese independence leader.
27
Known as the massacre of Urrao; it took place on May 5, 2003.
28
A canoa is a small boat.
29
“It’s me, Luis Eladio, Luis Eladio Pérez. We were senators at the same time.”
30
“Are you Clarita?”
31
A colloquial term of affection among Colombians.
32
Chopped pork and chicken, cooked with rice and corn, mixed with boiled eggs and carrots, reheated in a banana-leaf wrap.
33
Jorge used “madame” in French in deference to my French origins, and as a term of endearment.
34
“Prisoners! Count, hurry up!”
35
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
36
This is another word for the radio “brick.”
37
“Neither the food you have eaten nor your dancing can be taken away from you.”
38
Backpack.
39
The Plan Patriota, a plan implemented by President Uribe to capture the leaders of the FARC.
40
Pejorative term the guerrillas use to designate a girl who sleeps with a commander for the perks associated with her “rank.”
41
Partner, a term used to designate a boyfriend.
42
Toads. In the slang of young Colombians and schoolkids, a sapo is a snitch.
43
The name given to the negotiations with the FARC to obtain an exchange of prisoners.
44
“He who laughs last laughs best.”
45
A wild boar, greatly appreciated by the guerrillas for its meat.
46
“I have all the ammunition.”
47
“It doesn’t matter, comrade, give it to me.”
48
“Old woman! Get lost over there, behind the guys who are cutting the wood. Don’t move from there until we order you to.”
49
An elevation in the middle of the Llanos, between the Andes and the jungle.
50
He was the guerrilla who had accompanied Sombra on the guitar during the serenade, the third in command after Alfredo and Sombra.
51
“Life is a lottery, lottery, lottery.”
52
Coajada is a sort of fresh farmer cheese, while arepas are like tortillas, made with unleavened flour.
53
Estuaries.
54
High elevations in the Andes.
55
I met three commanders called Cesar: El Mocho Cesar, who was present at my capture; Young Cesar, the first commander who was assigned to us; and this Cesar, member of the Oriental Bloc under Mono Jojoy’s command, chief of the First Front.
56
The FARC liberated a group in 2001.
57
Colombian folk dance, originally performed by slaves from the high Magdalena, in the city of Monpox; it is inspired by African songs using Caribe Indian and Spanish instruments.
58
Near San Vicente del Caguan.
59
“You look like a duck!”
60
“All of this belongs to the FARC.”
61
“The FARC did this.”
62
Welcome to Freedom.
63
Mechnanic in charge of the motor.
64
Rapids.
65
El cambuche designates a dwelling place (tent and bed). The word caleta is used to designate a bed built on the ground. Sometimes cambuche and caleta can be used interchangeably.
66
A small stream.
67
Another slang term for leishmaniasis.
68
The commander, in this case Enrique, alias Gafas.
69
A native hut, with a roof made of palm leaves.
70
House.
71
212 2303.
72
A brown square of sugar.
73
A giant Amazonian caiman.
74
Wood used for cooking that will burn, even when wet.
75
Giant Amazonian otters.
76
Different sorts of gnats
77
A superior in charge of the changing of the guard.
78
“Old bitch, do you want them to kill you?”
79
Another Enrique.
80
Displaced people from the war between paramilitaries and guerrillas.
81
“Girl, I’m very proud of you.”
82
Wash area.
83
I have many nicknames for Pinchao.
84
Microscopic red ants who defend themselves by pissing acid.
85
Cheese bread made with yucca flour.
86
A special dish from the central Andean region, it is potato soup with chicken and sweet corn.
87
A dessert of sweet smooth caramel paste.
88
Giant, poisonous ants.
89
“I want to use tú to talk to you.”
90
“You are already doing so.”
91
The Firefly.
92
Captain Julián Guevara fell ill in 2006 because the FARC refused to treat him; he died shortly after that. He was in a camp not far from ours that was under the command of Enrique, too.
93
“I am the man of gloom—the widower—the unconsoled . . .” From the poem “El Desdichado” (The Disinherited). Gérard de Nerval, Selected Writings, trans. Richard Sieburth (UK: Penguin Group, 1999), 363.
94
“What blossoms in a tree finds life from what the tree keeps buried.” From the poem “Soneto” (Sonnet) by Francisco Luis Bernárdez (translation courtesy of the author).
95
From the poem “Para Todos” by Pablo Neruda.
96
“In a curtain.”
97
A cosumbo is actually a coati, but the animal is called different names in different regions of the country.
98
“We are the Colombian army! You are free!”
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