The Oldest Things in the World
by
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Carlos talked to Eva and thought, This road, Rose here: my Rosa. Her back was straight against the hard chair. Her face was serious, but relaxed. Rosa thinks about miners. I think about her. "We must get back to catch the bus," Carlos stood and embraced Eva. She is too thin, he thought, and she coughs too much. They walked slowly away from the house. In the warm winter day, nothing else moved. Ahead were the mountains, framing each other in seven shades of gray, enveloped in a haze that prevented the sky from ever being a true deep blue. One white peak rose above the rest. Rose squinted into the distance. Is that a cloud? Could any mountain of sand be that white? On both sides of the road were ruined walls of pale adobe bricks, walls that enclosed other walls for no apparent reason. The walls had no roofs, but Rose heard a radio and voices. Was it possible that people lived inside these ruins? Trucks passed at intervals. A man in a dark jacket sat on the bed of a pickup truck stacked with boxes. He smiled and saluted them. The motor left a low rumbling echo in the stillness. She thought of Carlos, Elena and Eva. Elias, whom she knew without meeting. Luisa, whom she would never meet. She brushed Carlos’ hand as she stumbled on a small rock. "I must be part of this," she said, her voice loud in the hot, quiet afternoon. Carlos looked at her. "You’ll find a way." That dusty road where the miners walked toward Lima holding their banners in front of them became the ground on which she, too, declared her intention to the world. "I love you," Rose said to Carlos across the still afternoon. "Sun," he said. "Sun in the middle of winter. I forgot how glorious it is." He waved his hand to indicate the scarlet bougainvillea and tall yellow sunflowers on the road’s edge. He took her hand. Like the miners, for a brief time they would not have to struggle alone.
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About the Book
In this novel of action and ideas, Rose Smith wants to live among the "the oldest things in the world." While working in Los Angeles, a photo of Peru’s Machu Picchu attracts her attention. "Stone city, blue sky. Home," she ruminates. Impulsively, she goes. There she meets a university professor, Carlos Urbina Delgado. They fall in love during a long trip down the dry Peruvian coast into the ancient mountain city of Cuzco. Through Carlos, Rose sees the poverty of the once-proud Inca, ponders the endurance of these and other indigenous peoples and wonders if the world can survive without them.
Rose sees Los Angeles differently when she returns – as a city without a soul, divorced from its roots in early native people. Overcome by loneliness, Rose retreats into work. Slowly she moves forward in her quest. She rediscovers her passion for painting and joins in fighting for the rights of indigenous people. Carlos visits, but she has one more journey she must make: to Guatemala where the indigenous Maya have survived three decades of war. There, in the cities’ markets and the country’s highlands, in violence that pits Indian against European and nearly ends her life, Rose looks for her answers.
About the Author
Barbara Crane is a fiction writer and human rights activist who makes her living teaching, writing and speaking primarily to corporate audiences in the United States. Throughout the late 1970's and 1980's, her interest in history, politics and anthropology inspired journeys to Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua in addition to three visits to Peru. To gain greater understanding, she attended many conferences, which brought her into contact with people who had first-hand knowledge of the issues. She read over a hundred books and as many articles in researching and writing this novel. Her research, experiences, and the heroic people she met impelled her to write The Oldest Things in the World.