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2015-02-13

Justo Espantoso is an Ardispherian folk tradition associated with the fall harvest (which, being the southern hemisphere, occurs in late March or early April each year). As the straw is gathered in the fields after harvest, numerous scarecrows (espantapájaros) are erected in the fields, which are often elaborately dressed or decorated by children over a period of weeks. Then on the night of the second full moon after the harvest, the scarecrows are all lit on fire and allowed to burn. The custom is symbolically associated with a kind of purging or emptying out of the detritus of the summer months, and an effort to ensure a good growing season the following year. The name derives from a real-life individual (see Justo Picard) who went by the nom-de-guerre Justo Espantoso in the mid-18th century in the Lower Hierro Valley region (modern day Ciudad Quiroga, DS), in the Ardisphere. Leading a group of bandits and highwaymen, Justo Espantoso had a custom of burning the scarecrows in the fields in an effort to terrorize the local inhabitants and let them know he was in the area and would be demanding tribute. He was a fearsome figure with a notorious habit for unnecessary cruelty, and even today the figure of Justo Espantoso is summoned to terrify children in late-night campfire tales. The custom itself, however, is probably based on a much older Altazorian tradition that was adopted by the original Ingerish, Karolian and Castellanese colonists when they first settled the region. There is a small town and train stop called Justo Espantoso (on the Ferrocarriles Orientales RUTA 24), in the area southwest of Ciudad Quiroga where Picard and his men supposedly made their final stand against the colonial constabulary in the 1760s. Each year, the town holds its Justo Espantoso festival, including a nighttime parade and many burning scarecrows. The town has developed the theme into a significant, year-round tourist draw, with over 200,000 visitors annually. Recently, an "Espantoso"-themed water park (called Reino Acuático Muy Espantoso) has opened near the town, mixing metaphors with some unrelated pirate-themes, but nevertheless proving a huge commercial success. More...

2015-02-07

Che Kim (also written Che Quim) is the fictional protagonist in the 19th century Ardispherian epic poem, El vaquero de Gojangú (The Cowboy from Gohanguk), written by Isolde Pio. It was first published in 1837, but was mostly written several decades earlier around the first decade of the 19th century, when Pio lived in the interior. The long poem tells the story of a teenage Gohangukian immigrant, Che Quim ("Quim" is a 19th century Castellanese spelling of the common Gohangukian surname Kim), down on his luck in the dockyards of Puerto Nuevo (now Villa Constitución) who meets a cowboy from the interior named Persiles Lacio. Lacio takes the young man under his wing and puts him to work on a large rancho in the Costa de Dragones in an unspecified location (probably based on the area around modern Soledad in Departamento Occidental), where the young Quim becomes a skilled marksman, horseman and tracker. The poem is considered the foundational and prototypical work of the costense genre of poems and songs, which were sung by the cowboys and tradesmen of the Ardispherian interior in the late colonial and early federation period. The characters of Che Quim and Persiles Lacio have become the prototypical Ardispherians, cowboys who battled aborigines and pirates across the variegated landscape of the country, from the western desert to the high mountains of the Sierra de los Cientoocho, from the northern savannah to the rocky southern coast. Yet despite the superficial and sometimes violent plot, the poem also enters into complex existential themes and exhibits unexpected Gautamic symbolism. Many Ardispherians will refer to Che Kim as a real historical personage, and because they memorize the first stanzas of the poem in school it is not uncommon to hear the lines recited in public whenever people are feeling patriotic or nostalgic. Como estamos descansando quisiera en este canzó contarles lo que pasó allá en el llano a un vaquero, nombre de Che Quim el fiero, p'acá de Gojangú andó. More...