(A56 english version) The dispute between Fernandina and Sierra Negra: a contemporary myth

This is a translation of a previous note: La disputa entre Fernandina y Sierra Negra

In the oral traditions of Ecuador, the volcanoes usually have strong characters. Some are troublemakers, like Cotopaxi and Chimborazo, others like Guagua Pichincha act like spoilt children, and others like Tungurahua have a maternal character (Andrade, 2018). The oral traditions in part reflect the eruptive activity of these volcanoes in the times during which our ancestors were looking to explain natural phenomenon and they were comparing them to human behaviour: this is called anthropomorphism. However, the colonization of Galápagos started only two centuries ago in an era where science already tended to silence myth. Therefore, there are no tales or fables about these grand volcanoes and all of the historical reviews have a more scientific nature rather than poetic. In this context arose the idea; What if we use science to create a little bit of Galapagos mythology? The next story is based on real observational data, published by investigators from the Instituto Geofísico of the Escuela Politecnica Nacional (Ecuador), from Pennsylvania State University (EUA) and from the Universidad Central del Ecuador (Ecuador). The report was published in the international journal Volcanica (Vasconez et al., 2018).

The Galapagos archipelago and its colorful inhabitants

Once upon a time there was a population of large volcanoes living on some islands 1000 km to the west of Ecuador, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the population is called the Galápagos Archipelago. Within the colourful inhabitants there was grandad Santa Cruz and Grandma Española who were resting after many years of work. In the extreme east of the archipelago was Don Cristobal, the sleepiest mayor ever known. To the south east was auntie Floreana with her countless warts. To the north was cheerful Santiago, who was always in good humour, and Genovesa the European, the inaccessible one. Don Pinta the conqueror who boasted of his gallantry but Marchena the nun did not pay any attention.

The islands to the west were inhabited by a family of volcanoes young and tempestuous. The patriarch of the family, Fernando, was the grumpiest, so much so that he decided to live alone on his own island, far away from his wife and children. He was annoyed about nearly everything. The plants and animals annoyed him, but in particular the humans that took photos without permission annoyed him the most. The wife of Fernando lived with her five children on the biggest island. The island was called Isabela but they decided with affection to call her Negrita because of the colour of her hair and dark skin. She wasn’t just the most beautiful of all the population but was also the most kind and welcoming. Negrita only looked after her children Azulino, Alcedo, Darwin, Wolfy and Ecuador. She loved nature and had dozens of species of birds and plants on her back.

Fernando had the solution for the humans on Negrita

Negrita also like the humans and allowed them to settle on her slopes. The humans were a little strange, they had machines of all types, some flew in the air, others sailed the sea and others traveled on the ground. All of these machines tickled Negrita and caused a lot of curiosity. As Negrita was very beautiful, the humans always went to see her, walking around her borders and taking photos. Fernando did not like this and he told her:

• Negrita you shouldn’t receive the humans! They are evil and dirty, they will spoil your beauty.

Fernando was angry with the humans because they had scared his only friend, Chelo the Fantastic, a giant tortoise that lived on his back. He is called the Fantastic because he used to do magic tricks and disappear suddenly. Fernando did not like this and spent time calling:

• Chelo, Chelo, where are you? Please come out from where you are hiding and come here to my side.

Fernando tried to take out Chelo from his hiding place, Wolfy went to the bathroom and Azulino shook with so much commotion

Chelo the Fantastic continued to hide without saying a word and Fernando continued to make more noise. The shouts of Fernando started to annoy the others. Through fear, Lobito went to the bathroom while sleeping and Azulino shook from all the commotion. Negrita said to Fernando:

• Please, stop making so much noise, you are going to wake our children!

• I don’t care, responded Fernando. It is your fault, with your humans. You scared Chelo.

• That is not true, said Negrita. Now the humans are good, they look after nature and help the tortoises.

• Not true! Responded Fernando. They are dirty and destroy everything with their machines, I hate them!

Negrita was annoyed with the behaviour of Fernando but knew that he was partially right. Fernando continued to call Chelo and to make him come out from his hiding place he threw a large lava flow down his flank, emitting a cloud of vapour like a steam train. The lava flow did not make Chelo come out but started a large fire that destroyed most of the vegetation. Negrita was furious:

• Look what you have done Fernando! shouted Negrita. You are going to destroy all of the plants and animals on your island.

Fernando replied:

• I don’t like them, I only care about Chelo and it is the humans’s fault that he hide.

Fernando threw a lava flow at the tourists while Chelo continued to hide

Fernando saw the humans getting close to Punta Espinosa in their boats, where they normally disembarked to take photos. This time he wasn’t going to let them get any closer. Again he threw a big lava flow towards them. Negrita shouted:

• This is the last straw! Stop throwing lava at the humans.

Negrita became angry and threw a big lava flow towards Fernando

She threw enormous lava flows towards Fernando. For weeks Negrita was in eruption, throwing lava closer to Fernando each time. Fernando, impressed by his wife’s power became quiet. Two months passed until Negrita finally calmed down.

All of the family are sleeping peacefully, at least for now

After a time, the humans could return to the back of Negrita. She was tired from so much fighting and so she went to sleep, hoping that Chelo the Fantastic would appear so that Fernando would calm down again for everyone’s sake. However, so everybody can live together in peace, the humans should change their behavior if they want to continue enjoying the nature of Negrita and her family, the only Galápagos archipelago.

Chelo the Fantastic says “See you next time!"

Text: Benjamin Bernard

Illustrations: Daniel Sierra

Revision: Silvana Hidalgo, Francisco Vasconez y Daniel Sierra

Translation from spanish: Liz Gaunt

References

Andrade, M. J. (2018) Escrito en piedras. Cuentos y leyendas del Cotopaxi. Trama Ediciones, ISBN 978-9978-36-991-3

Vasconez, F., Ramón, P., Hernandez, S., Hidalgo, S., Bernard, B., Ruiz, M., Alvarado, A., La Femina, P. and Ruiz, G. (2018) “The different characteristics of the recent eruptions of Fernandina and Sierra Negra volcanoes (Galápagos, Ecuador)”, Volcanica, 1(2), pp. 127-133.

Available free:

https://www.jvolcanica.org/ojs/index.php/volcanica/article/view/18