The speech at The Mexico Institute event
THE INSTITUTE OF MEXICO SPEECH, March 30, 2013, Dallas, Texas
By: Margaret Donnelly
I’ve been asked to speak about my literary career and THE PATH OF LORD JAGUAR.
My next book, another historical novel, BOLIVAR AND THE LAST INCA KING, will be published at the end of this year.
THE PATH OF LORD JAGUAR is my third and most recent book, and it is in this book that I brought lessons learned from writing THE SPIRITS OF VENEZUELA and THE SONG OF THE GOLDENCOCKS.
In THE SPIRITS OF VENEZUELA I found my spiritual voice as an author, and in THE SONG OF THE GOLDENCOKS I found my voice as a historian. In both books, I took real, hidden events and brought them to the surface in a different way.
If you want to read about our spiritual underground of Venezuela, then THE SPIRITS OF VENEZUELA is a wonderful introduction to our native mysticism, which is not only a by-product of our Roman Catholic roots but our African and Indian roots also.
I’ve been told that THE SONG OF THE GOLDENCOCKS is my best book so far. But I think it’s because I deal with a very complex subject-matter—the modern paramilitary culture of Latin America—and how it was transferred by the Nazis to the Americas. In fact, many of the terror tactics used by the cartels in Mexico today seem like a replay of the ORGANIZED TERROR used by the Nazis in Europe.
So…with these two books, I jumped from magical realism to historical fiction to THE PATH OF LORD JAGUAR which brings both currents together…our magical, historical reality.
I’ve learned a lot about magical realism from GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ and about the conflict caused by materialism from CARLOS FUENTES. My interest in American realism has been influenced by MARK TWAIN and WILLIAM FAULKNER, who were wonderful storytellers about the plainest, most ordinary Americans.
So…some ask, “How did I become a writer?” Well, nothing happens accidentally. I began journalizing my experiences and my dreams, and from there, these journals became THE SPIRITS OF VENEZUELA. After completing this book, I had to write about the organized terror that pushed so many refugees into the United States in the 1980’s. In fact, two clients gave me the input about the Nazis in Argentina and how they contaminated the military apparatus of Argentina and Chile.
Like most authors who write fiction, they use their life experiences or the life experiences of others. But writing is a calling just like law is another calling. It takes great discipline to be successful at both. In fact, Mark Twain said that, “To become a good writer, the first rule is to write; the second rule is to write; and the third rule is to write.” And that’s what I’m doing.
Controversy always follows writing. Sometimes people have trouble reconciling the fact that I wrote THE SPIRITS OF VENEZUELA with my legal profession…such as the Government Attorney who objected to my motion for a continuance on the grounds that I needed to schedule an expert witness for the trial. He said, “Your Honor, Ms. Donnelly’s expert witness will probably be a psychic!” And I said, “I wrote the book to let people know how to speak with spirits, and those who get the message of my book will certainly be more successful in communicating with the U.S. government!”
THE SONG OF THE GOLDENCOCKS has met with controversy in Argentina because many Argentinians blame the United States for creating the death squads. When faced with this accusation, I bring up the fact that the Americans also learned about the Nazi’s organized terror when the U.S. occupied Germany.
To continue the theme that nothing happens accidentally, as the Maya say, on a more personal level, when my father moved us to the United States, I found myself asking WHY. What was I doing here? It took 15 years later to realize that I had mission in the United States. By then, I had a law degree and an immigration law practice.
In all, I was placed in the middle of Dallas, Texas, for the purpose of immigrating thousands of people to the United States, and I’m writing books that distinguish themselves by a Pan American vision about WHO we really are as members of this wonderful continent called the Americas. Some call it destiny because I’m bringing people together through two wonderful vocations.
My books are about the culture of the Americas, part European, part Indian and part African. I tap our indigenous voice, whether it’s in a historical context or through our mystical heritage.
Maya mythology is captured for posterity in THE PATH OF LORD JAGUAR, which runs on a central theme, premised on the Maya’s serpent of light which spills out of the pyramid of Kukulcán in Chichen Itza during each equinox and runs across the Americas from north to south and south to north, uniting the people of the Americas with each other and with the OTHER WORLD. It’s one way of saying that we’re a part of each other, whether here OR in the OTHER WORLD, living through a montage where the past, present and future are present, whether we are aware of it or not.
It’s interesting that the Incas have their own serpent of light, known as AMARU, and that modern-day archeology is revealing that the traffic between the Americas was very intense during pre-Spanish Conquest times. We know that the city of Teotihuacan in central Mexico was an important trading center for the Americas. In fact, in 2006, I had an amazing experience while sitting on the steps of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, when a voice spoke to me and said, “What’s your book doing in a drawer? Finish it and publish it now!” An Otomi friend of mine who was sitting next to me heard it too. So, I returned to Dallas and immediately finished THE SONG OF THE GOLDENCOCKS and published it.
The ancestors spoke to me in Teotihuacan even though I’m not Mexican and the book isn’t about Mexico. But it IS about the Americas.
The power of this Pan-American vision, symbolized through a cosmic serpent of energy, is important through the lens of our indigenous community. As Christians, we have a tendency to consider the snake as a symbol of evil, but we have to think outside of the box, and look at it as Pan-Americans. The symbolism of the serpent is also healing and the connection between body, mind and spirit. As an immigration attorney, I’ve seen how reality imitates mythology, or vice versa, by seeing how thousands and thousands of Mexicans cross our southern border just like in ancient times, as if there are no borders. That’s the message of the cosmic serpent.
Our inter-connectedness as a global human family is all over THE PATH OF LORD JAGUAR, especially, in the story of its characters—through African immigrant Kemi, our dear Pablo Balam from Mexico, and Jewish lawyer, David Levin—who care about each other deeply. Their stories are fed through the uniting element of water—the river in Oshogbo, Nigeria, the Gran Cenote of Chichen Itza, the Trinity river in Dallas, and the creek behind of the mansion where Kemi and Pablo work–and animals like jaguar and its African counterpart, the leopard, and above all, the serpent of the Maya, Kuxan Sum.
The family is defended and guarded by LORD JAGUAR. There’s an altar dedicated to LORD JAGUAR in the northern entrance of the Pyramid of Kukulcán. LORD JAGUAR is also the spirit that protects all Maya villages and and I use this symbolism to say that he’s here to protect all the other villages of the Americas. Even Kemi’s people, the Yorubas of Nigeria, have LADY LEOPARD, an ancient spirit that goes back even to the time when South America and Africa were joined together as one continent.
The parallel indigenous worlds of Kemi and Pablo as a human family inside of ten acres in the middle of Dallas come together through their love story, their spiritual journey, and their struggle for survival in an immigration system that’s imperfect but offers hope.
As Kemi and Pablo struggle to build their place in history, the path of light protected by Lord Jaguar continues to be traveled from north to south and south to north by millions of people who have made and are making this continent a very special place in the world.
And so, in conclusion, I promise that there will be many more stories, so stay tuned.
