Earthquakes and Art

     TV around the world has shown scenes of devastation and human suffering in the Colombian Andes. The earthquake, with its epicenter in a Armenia, shook a long area stretching from the Panamenian to the Ecuadorean border. In 1944-5 In I traveled from San Francisco to Buenos Aires by land and passed through that area. What struck me was that there were many villages of which, as a result of earthquakes, only facades were standing. Building solid architecture should have been a priority for Colombia.
     In this zone lies the colonial city of Popayan, whose poet, Guillermo Valencia, is the idol of conservatives. French late-19th century -isms have been the curse of Spain and Latin America, and it was in line with the -ism "art for art's sake" that Guillermo Valencia wrote "sacrificar un mundo para pulir un verso"--"sacrifice a world to polish a verse." Why worry about earthquakes and the suffering people when you are polishing a line of poetry?
     I once said this in a Bogota lecture. Leading Conservatives, who had been listening politely, were furious and refused to talk to me afterwards. The problem is that these Conservatives were strong Catholics. I wonder what Pope John Paul II would say to them?

Ronald Hilton - 01/29/99