Autobiography of Red

by Anne Carson

Now listen to me Geryon, Ancash was saying, there’s a village in the mountains north of Huaraz called Jucu and in Jucu they believe some strange things. It’s a volcanic region. Not active now. In ancient times they worshipped the volcano as a god and even threw people into it. For sacrifice? asked Geryon whose head had come out of the blanket. No not exactly. More like a testing procedure. They were looking for people from the inside. Wise ones. Holy men I guess you would say. The word in Quechua is Yazcol Yazcamac it means the Ones Who Went and Saw and Came Back— I think the anthropologists say eyewitnesses. These people did exist. Stories are told of them still. Eyewitnesses, said Geryon. Yes. People who saw the inside of the volcano. And came back. Yes. How do they come back? Wings. Wings? Yes that’s what they say the Yazcamac return as red people with wings, all their weaknesses burned away— and their mortality.