Letter to the Editor of The Washington Post

Dear Editor,

Not long ago (10/28/2012) a story appeared in the "Travel" section of "The Washington Post" ludicrously named "The ghost towns of northern Chile", which gives half truth accounts of a couple of villages abandoned in the North of that country.  This chronicle is neither complete nor accurate, lacks seriousness, respect, and is littered with futile and contemptible cultural misinformation.

Parts of this bulletin borders in the insolence due to a firm embedded possession of a negligible idiosyncratic obscurantism of and intellect frankly distressing.  Perhaps this banner is appropriate for those of lightweight discernment and a tremendous lack of distinctive culture erudition, because for the better informed, it is not.

For the record; among the indigenous voices of the Chilean toponymy is the word Pisagua, the same place named in the pamphlet.  The great legacy of names assigned to places, deeds, entities, things, objects, customs and history that our ancestors left us, are based on ancient non-phonetic alphabet patois, which some date back more than 10,000 years.  These old dialects which not only engulf the Chilean territory, but also the majority of the rich and extensive South American language toponymy; as rudimentary as these tongue-dialects may have been.

In many cases there are words and phrases of dialectical composition and integrated morphology such as the word "Pisiyaku".  This mythical Andean word of the region of the Qollasuyu, which is the region of the Aymará States located in the South of Perú, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina; combines two words: "pisi" from the Quechua meaning "little"; and the word "yaku", also from Quechua which means "water".  Later, this word became Pisagua.  The perpetrators of the assassinations of these words were the majority of the Spanish colonists and conquistadors who were pushed by the poor and backward intellect of the era, and dragged by the urgent lack of civility of their acts.  They spearheaded the conscious and systematic destruction of identity, scientific insight, traditions, worldview, local customs, history, organizational readiness, economic models, and rites of the Andean religions; and as a result it of this, the voice "Pisagua", which actually means "little water", was aborticide.  "Pisagua" is also an archaic but accredited language of Perú, also known as "Pisabo" or "Pisahua".

Within a grandeur of ignorance and cultural insensitivity, your writer tries to explain a term of perhaps several thousand of years older than English and Castellano, a word from languages of exercise and culture cultivated for millennia, with a neotongue which is a subgroup of West Germanic dialects which include German, Yiddish, low German, Dutch, the Afrikáansy and the Frisian; early proponents of the protoenglish, a language of phonetic alphabet of approximately a mere 1,500 years old.

Furthermore, with  subjective, amateurish, and haphazard in quality and coverage, this light stringer "translates" the word Pisagua as "piss", a fouled word from English, and "agua", Castellano for water.  Moreover, Castellano is a language that she lightly and boorishly calls "Spanish".  To set the record straight, the so called "Spanish" language doesn't exist.  The name of the tongue is CASTELLANO.  As such, we do not speak "American", the name of our language is ENGLISH.  On October 12, 1492, Don Cristóbal Colom, and not Colón, who was Mallorquín and not Italian or Genovese as the unacquainted still believe; arrived in the Americas, and upon arrival he placed the onerous Flag and the Coat of Arms of Castilla (Castile) in the ground of the newly discovered lands to claim possession for the Crowns, simply because Spain did not exist yet at that time.  The "Spanish" did not come to the new continent, the Castilians (Castellanos) and the people of Aragón did; from the Kingdoms of the Queen Isabel of Castilla, Queen of Castile and León; and Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragón, Sicily, Naples and Valencia. 

Moreover, when the Englishman arrived to North America circa 1607 in what it is now The United States, there was a linguistic stock of approximately 1.500 native vernacular  languages; some still in use today, and nearly everyone of them, older than English and Castellano.

There is a discipline called "Science of Humanity" which has its origins in the very humanity of man, in natural sciences and in social sciences.  The essence of this science has been since its birth and tradition, a cross-cultural comparison which its educational relativism has become the canon of research.  The name of this science is Social Anthropology; which encloses subjects such as Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, and last but not least; Linguistic Anthropology.  Being at least slightly informed of this before contaminating clean paper with nonsense ink it is a basic element to qualify as Homo Sapiens, and allows us to leave behind the struggle of walking erect .  

Worst of all my dear Editor; and I write this stern letter to you because I love The Washington Post, and I would like for it to keep its well regarded and rightfully earned reputation, but with journalism of such temperament it seems to me that almost anyone would qualify to make a publication without a minimum, at least lightweight examination of cultural safeguards, or with the slightest intention to exercise some civilized restrain.  This is one of the first mistakes some newspapers make to initiate their way into mediocrity and, ultimately end up being a mephitic vassal of the toilet.

With this, let me assure you Mr. Editor that The Washington Post is by no means, or in any way in this path by a long shot, and that I would like for it to be kept that way.  Your prestigious newspaper doesn't need garbage like this.  I apologize for the ruggedness of my language and for the frankness of my attitude.  The only excuse I can offer is that English is not my first language -phonetic one that is- and also; because I am a simple and unfussy citizen with some global cultural awareness, discretion, and respect.  I took some time to write this letter to you because I was cooling off...

Thank you,

Rodrigo A. Guajardo

Washington Post reader.