Indigenous Litter-ature

Abstract

Say you are walking against traffic through the plaza Abaroa—or, who knows, at the Montículo lookout—in La Paz, when someone approaches and, just before disappearing, says to you: una litera dura indígena. What would you take it to mean? That he simply has poor Spanish pronunciation, or is perhaps a foreigner and really meant to say una literatura indígena [an indigenous literature]? Or maybe he was actually referring to a cot, a litter [litera], to a litter that, apart from being indigenous, has the unfortunate quality of being hard [dura]? Or, perhaps, he referred to a cot or litter that literally lasts or endures [dura], that is, a litter enduringly indigenous? Or, in yet another possible conjecture, he might simply be pulling your leg [tomando el pelo], pulling your leg with his tongue [con la lengua]. Here, the Romance language that is Spanish affords a singular opportunity. Such a turn of phrase is not possible in other Indo-European languages, nor, as far as I know, in the so-called Amerindian or Indo-American ones. And if we hadn’t heard it in person, but had found the earlier-mentioned phrase printed on paper or inscribed on a potshard, would even that resolve all doubts?