Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(two comments slipped in before this reponse, which I'll answer in
turn after
posting this replt to Peter's last).
Peter, you always ask such deep questions! Regarding how childhood
events influenced my spiritual beliefs, the easy answer of course is
"yes."  I think a major theme throughout my life has been 'a search for
hidden answers' -- and this accounts for my impatience with what
perhaps could be called 'elitist access to information systems,' from
which our male-dominated culture derives a great deal of its power. I
think of Skull and Bones at Yale as a classical example, but would
include the 'whispered teachings' of Tibetan Buddhism to which only the
initiated are privy. Groucho Marx of course made the classical
rejoinder, "I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a
member..." 
In retrospect I must acknowledge with gratitude the amazing protection
that seems to have surrounded me from my infancy on. This has
convinced me that there is something very 'personal' about the way the
universe is constructed -- i.e., not just "inhuman, impersonal,
impartial, indifferent..." to quote my itinerant beggar monk 
and most respected brother O.B. Ray, now off-planet for a spell.
Easiest way to explain it would be via the caring ghostly presence of
Amparo hovering over her two children -- whose name translates as
'nurturance.' Another way would be to say that I have retained some
sort of access to a pre-two-year-old state of mind. I think for all of
us, our 'wounded areas' always hold the key to our special
sensibilities and talents. I get along just great with the nursery
school kids at my job, for instance. I'm right on their wavelength.
I tend to quibble a little with words such as 'belief' and 'faith,'
because for me it's totally apparent and obvious in the day-to-day
reality I perceive through my senses that light is vertical love, and
that our heart centers were designed to transform this into a
horizontal positive energy that transmits in all directions. Of course
I also experience myself as a portable fertilizer factory designed by
trees for their own well-being, and occasionally wonder if my dog isn't
monitoring me as an advanced species from outer space (smile).  But
all this wanders a bit off topic.
  

    
Dave, your views regarding Franco's resting place are shared by many
and, as I commented here early on, I believe one Abraham Lincoln
Brigade vet did succeed in desecrating El Topolino's resting place.
Occasionally I wonder whether all these years later a class action suit
against whatever falangist groups still exist would have any merit, or
would just be a waste of time. We have a friend whose organization
successfully sued a known Central American torturer now living in
Florida. Although they probably will never collect on the
multi-million-dollar judgment, at least the ex-general is no longer
living in well-padded anonymity.  On the other hand, this quote  jumped
out at me recently (apologies if I posted it here already):
  "Forgiveness means giving up all hope of a better past."
                                                                      
   - Landrum Bolling   
  

    
Jax, an oversimplification but an interesting one. Actually I think
the loss of
the Armada fleet and ensuing control of the high seas to England was
some sort of
turning point. But Spain did indeed lag far behind the rest of Europe
in modernizing its social systems, and the working class attempts to
join the twentieth century were met with brutal violence by those in
power. Franco first became notorious during the general strike
supporting the Asturias miners in October, 1934, when he brought
Moroccan mercenaries into Oviedo to crush the strikers with pillage and
rape against their families. 
  

    
Our friend who won the lawsuit:
Sandra Coliver: Executive Director of the Center for Justice and
Accountability, a San Francisco nonprofit. They won a verdict
against two retired Salvadoran generals. Carlos Eugenio Vides
Casanova and Jose Guillermo Garcia who were found responsible for
torture, rape and other atrocities committed during El Salvador's
civil
war. The jury in West Palm Beach ordered them to pay $54.6 million
to three torture victims.
  

    
Is that only symbolic, or is there a snowball's chance they'll collect
a dime?

Your book evokes transcendent sadnesses in that you unfold so artfully
yet simply your story one family's horrors under a style of political
brutality all too familiar in the world.  You ring down every change.

The most poignant aspect, of course, as we have been told so many
times in such stories, is the pain and guilt of the survivors
tormenting themselves with their personal might-have-dones.

It never ends. There are 800,000 stories like yours waiting to be told
by Rwandans, in part because the world knew and turned away. And this
despite all we of Euro-American culture know about Hitler, Franco,
Stalin, Milosevic, etc.
  

    
Is the lawsuit judgment only symbolic? Well, it made front page 
news in the media, so at least their neighbors know who they
are. I doubt if either of them sleep as comfortably as before.

You summed up the situation very concisely in your last post,
Jack. Thank you. Ultimately, though, until we all awaken to the
reality of our intimate interconnectness as a species, as a life 
form, as a planetary consciousness, and realize that whatever
we inflict on any of these we inflict upon ourselves and our 
loved ones, murder, rape and pillage will continue in their 
various guises (in which we should include the decimation of
our ecosystems under the smokescreen of Free Enterprise).

The 'heart of the beast,' according to my co-aspirant Lou
Gottlieb in the mid-sixties, was 'the alienation of real
property' - i.e. "the carving up of Mother Earth's sweet breast
and selling off the pieces," as he so aptly described it. But
this is a whole other topic for a whole other book, isn't it?
  

    
That's LG of the Limelighters?
  

    
This has been a fascinating two weeks' discussion. Thanks, rabar and pjm,
for your time, and thanks to everyone else who contributed.

It doesn't have to end here; the topic will remain open indefinitely. But I
wanted to note that a new conversation is moving "into the spotlight" and
off some formal acknowledgement and thanks.

But, do continue!
  

    
Many thanks, Bruce, Peter, and all those who contributed their
thoughts and/or their virtual presences. It has been a fascinating
experience for me, with many of the questions allowing me a chance to
ponder more deeply some of my own feelings and experiences.
Answering jax's query above, Lou Gottlieb indeed was the Limeliter LG
and also the dedicated 'Uncle Lou' of the Sonoma County open door
communal movement.  A number of archived topics on the Well include
some of Lou's postings, either direct or via my uploads. A starting
point would be archives 169 
Otherwise you can access the MOST newsletters that contain
considerable Lou materials at
http://www.ic.org/morningstar
  

    
It was a pleasure, Ramon.  I would like to thank David, Bruce, and the
rest of Confteam for allowing me the privilege of leading this
discussion.  I will be sticking around.  Feel free to ask questions of
any sort or post your own thoughts.
  

    
I noticed that _A Death in Zamora_ is available at Amazon.com, and it
has a five-star review.  I'd like to encourage those who've read it
also add their reviews at Amazon.  I plan to do so.  I think Ramon's
work deserves our support.
  

    

And please don't purchase at Amazon's inflated price, but click on
the 'new and used' button to order the new edition  directly from
Booksurge
at $15.
  

    
To me, one of the most striking aspects of Ramón's book is how it
disturbed my ignorance of the Spanish Civil War.  I knew that there had
been a civil war in Spain, and I knew that Franco was a fascist who
held power for too many years.  But in my ignorance, I'd somehow held a
mental image of it as a war only between combatants.

I never had any notion of how civilians, especially women and
children, had been brutalized on the basis of "guilt by association"
with socialists.  While the events may not compare to Nazi atrocities
in scope or magnitude, there is a definite similarity in terms of the
sheer brutality.  My impression is that we in the USA have been
woefully underexposed to the painful truth of what happened in Spain,
perhaps because it was indeed overshadowed by the horrors of Nazi
Germany.

And yet, reading this book gives one the opportunity to accompany
Ramón on his painful and intimately personal quest for truth and
discovery, while at the same time filling one with admiration for
Ramón's willingness to assume a compassionate stance toward certain
exceedingly evil individuals.  Amparo lives in Ramón's nobel heart, and
this book generously provides us with a glimpse of her glory.
  

    
My impression is that we in the USA have been woefully underexposed to
the painful truth of what happens in all wars.  We see planes and
ships and explosions.  We rarely see the damage done to the innocents. 
We don't want to see it.  Thanks for a powerful post, (gerry).