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Leonardo Gómez
Walimai is a member of the Children of the Moon, a people indigenous to South America. After it became clear that the White men only wanted to take and exploit the indigenous people’s land and resources, even if it took war, Walimai’s people began to retreat further and further into the woods. Walimai exemplifies his people’s cultural values of care for the collective, reverence for the spiritual self, and respect for women and children. When Walimai is taken prisoner by White men and put to work harvesting rubber, he violates the last of these principles when he mercy-kills a woman from his mother’s tribe (the Ila) whom the White men have enslaved. Walimai is determined to follow his people’s rituals to set the Ila woman’s soul free, and he travels and fasts for days on end in order to release her spirit.
Walimai Quotes in The Stories of Eva Luna
The The Stories of Eva Luna quotes below are all either spoken by Walimai or refer to Walimai . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Story 9: Walimai
Quotes
The names of persons and living creatures demand respect, because when we speak them we touch their heart and become a part of their life force. This is how we blood kinsmen greet each other. I cannot understand the ease with which the white ones call each others’ names, with no fear; not only does it show a lack of respect, it can also lead to grave danger. I have noted that these persons speak unthinkingly, not realizing that to speak is to be. Word and gesture are man’s thought.
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Story 18: Interminable Life
Quotes
There are all kinds of stories. Some are born with the telling; their substance is language, and before someone puts them into words they are but a hint of an emotion, a caprice of mind, an image, or an intangible recollection. […] And then there are secret stories that remain hidden in the shadows of the mind; they are like living organisms, they grow roots and tentacles, they become covered with excrescences and parasites, and with time are transformed into the matter of nightmares. To exorcise the demons of memory, it is sometimes necessary to tell them as a story.
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Walimai Quotes in The Stories of Eva Luna
The The Stories of Eva Luna quotes below are all either spoken by Walimai or refer to Walimai . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Story 9: Walimai
Quotes
The names of persons and living creatures demand respect, because when we speak them we touch their heart and become a part of their life force. This is how we blood kinsmen greet each other. I cannot understand the ease with which the white ones call each others’ names, with no fear; not only does it show a lack of respect, it can also lead to grave danger. I have noted that these persons speak unthinkingly, not realizing that to speak is to be. Word and gesture are man’s thought.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Story 18: Interminable Life
Quotes
There are all kinds of stories. Some are born with the telling; their substance is language, and before someone puts them into words they are but a hint of an emotion, a caprice of mind, an image, or an intangible recollection. […] And then there are secret stories that remain hidden in the shadows of the mind; they are like living organisms, they grow roots and tentacles, they become covered with excrescences and parasites, and with time are transformed into the matter of nightmares. To exorcise the demons of memory, it is sometimes necessary to tell them as a story.
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Related Themes:
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