El Cadejo, Part 2

 El Cadejo are spirits that follow travelers, one black and one white. The black one is perceived as harmful.  The white one is perceived as a protector.

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In many of the guests, the soulfulness of their voices, the movement of their dance, the Afro that was better than mine, made me understand that my speaking English instead of Spanish may well be where a slave ship delivered its cargo.  

Emory University’s Voyages Database contains records on the human trafficking of Africans into the Americas and the Caribbean (http://www.slavevoyages.org).  One can track ship commission dates, ship names, voyage dates, region of slave trade, destinations, and more. The database shows how different traders purchased people from the same region then, distributed them from New York to Argentina as part of international commerce.  – Read Part 3

Lemberger Strasse

     In Lemberger Strasse, I chose to enter into the tunnel.

Red Earth closed in around me.

    I followed the guide.  Not a thought of how the journey would end entered my head.  I thought more of not getting my clothes dirty, as if that really mattered.

    I lowered my head here and there.  I listened to the guide... an escape tunnel, in the event of a siege, down through the water well and out the side of the mountain.

    We stopped where the tunnel floor gave way to a steel grating that was supported by steel girders, hammered into the Earth.

    The guide beckoned. I followed.  Some would not.  But, I stepped out and stood up, suspended between fear and comfort, bright sky and dark water, between the two people of whom one could become.

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