Eldorado Muisca, Origin of the Legend and Fall of the Chibcha Nation.

By JUAN CARLOS Hoyos

The Muisca nation gave birth to the legend of ElDorado. The legend spread due to the ritual done to crown a new king, a zipa. This ceremony was celebrated at Guatavita`s lagoon. The upcoming zipa was completely covered with gold powder until he became the personification of El Dorado, a golden man. Afterward, he dived into the lagoon, copulating symbolically with it, and become the undoubtful zipa. The news of this ritual walked the paths as far as Quito, where Sebastián de Belalcázar heard about it. But this is not a novel of some primitive and noble savage, that romantic idea that has over three centuries. Not the superficial idea of Muiscas their descendants, (half-blood too) have. No, instead, the real History of a developed nation with politics, economy, hierarchies, riches, lords, palaces, goldwork, and a powerful and stable kingdom. This novel asks for the right place in History for this culture.
In a rich evergreen land sparkled with lagoons, surrounded by páramos that give birth to crystalline rivers, with a favorable climate, the History development is surely different than that of a culture in the middle of a desert. The reader has the opportunity to live in Bacatá, as a Muisca, and watch six decades of their affairs. Then, strange news arrives, unknown and weird people are coming, they bring horses, steel armors and swords, and gunpowder. The Muisca nation is confused, not sure if this strange men are gods or enemies.
Conquerors come for ElDorado, they want the gold, and even though Nature has not placed gold in this geography, Muiscas have been rich and accumulated tons of it. Each cacique has its treasure, and each Ubsaque has its own, but they will bury it before giving it to the Spaniards.
It seems the final day has come for Muiscas. How can they defend their nation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JUAN CARLOS Hoyos
• Release date: Mar 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215884041

Book preview

Eldorado Muisca[1]

Fall of the Chibcha Nation[2]

By

Juan Carlos Hoyos

© 2022

Awake Slave Productions

All rights reserved

Eldorado Muisca: Origin of the legend ElDorado, the golden king: El Dorado, zipa of Muisca powerful Chibcha nation. ElDorado: magical realism origin. El Dorado attracted conquerors dying for ElDorado.

Tabla de contenido

Introduction

I Nemequene visits Popón 1470

II  Saguamanchica is crowned the new zipa 1470

III The crier Iecuhuma prepares for a trip to a distant land

IV  Saguamanchica unleashes war

V  Iecuhuma returns and finds the kingdom at war.

VI  Nemequene studies and becomes a man between wars

VII  The zipa dispenses justice

VIII  Battle of Chocontá 1490

IX  Coronation of Nemequene

X  Nemequene organizes its Cercado

XI  Nemequene`s Code

XII Nemequene introduces changes to his kingdom

XIII  A stubborn man convinces his kings

XIV Navels that sink

XV Trip to Furatena

XVI Three caravels with 90 men: September 1492

XVII The good government of Nemequene

XVIII Tisquesusa new zipa 1514

XIX End of the truce

XX Strange Rumours: Early Months of 1537

XXI The Opones face the invaders: February 1537

XXII Signs of higher civilization

XXIII Subtle insurrection of Jiménez de Quesada: March 1537

XXIV The black afternoon of the children of Guachetá: March 1537

XXV  They advance south until they touch the zipazgo in Suesca. First battle March-April 1537

XXVI The zipa analyzes his first defeat and hides the treasure: April 1537

XXVII The Spaniards arrive in Bacatá: in May 1537

XXVIII They devise a plan to get rid of the intruders: June 1537

XXIX The soldiers act as miners in Somondoco; July 1537

XXX  The zaque prisoner submits the rest of the zacazgo: August 1537

XXXI  They go to Bacatá from Hunza and Tisquesusa dies: Second semester months 1537

XXXII Sagipa's Rise: Final Months of 1537

XXXIII  Sagipa's mockery, torture, and death in the first months of 1538

XXXIV Twelve huts founded: July-August 1538

XXXV Gonzalo leaves for Spain but returns because of Lázaro Fonte: September-December 1538

XXXVI  Federmán and Belalcázar arrive and found Santa Fe del Nuevo Reino de Granada. December 1538-March 1539

Introduction

If perhaps the frogs repeated it in their nightly assembly, there were no people in the maloca of the dark vault to find out how History ordered their destinies with the plan of twisting the fragile religion that the innocent believed so iron. Only three generations had he written the incoercible appointment to which everyone would arrive blindly with their rivers of sperm to found a new mestizo race. It would bring the harquebuses with their thunderous incense of Satan to this exalted savannah dotted with lagoons and would take the potato and the golden color of the corn overseas. History would be very busy sending Columbus, gathering the Renaissance in Florence, dictating Luther his theses, expelling the Muslims from Spain, killing the zipa and the zaque in the Chocontá valley, handing over Constantinople, filling the rescue chamber in Cajamarca, setting the printing press in Europe, explaining the Utopia and the Prince, and a thousand interwoven issues, some large and others as small as the lice with which the Aymaras of Titicaca paid their tribute to the Inca.

I

Nemequene visits Popón

1470

In their already made world, the Muisca nation slept hidden from the moon so Huitaca would not disgrace them. It slept in a black womb, like the darkness before time inside each bohío. Until the birds sang, and there was light as if it sprouted from their beaks[3]. The paramuna mist woke up from the floor and dissolved, pierced by the benign heat of the sun. One day began, but on this one, from very early, hidden by the song of the birds, the footsteps of hundreds of people arrived dressed in red[4] because the news that the zipa was dying had spread through the land of the lagoons.[5]

Zipagauta, a former servant of Saguamanchica, had been called by the young Nemequene[6], his lord's nephew, to accompany him to Popón’s[7] hut. Nemequene was a great admirer of who would be a wise clairvoyant and treasure that he had invited him to show him the pictograms that were in the surroundings.

He got up, ate chocolate and corn arepas, threw on a couple of blankets because it was very cold, and left his bohio for the Saguamanchica’s Cercado, which was no more than 700 steps away.

He was looking for the news of the zipa among the cliques and acquaintances that he came across, but nothing was known.

In Saguamanchica’s Cercado, the agitation had been going on for several hours, and now, with almost everyone up, it was devilish. Nemequene waiting at the eastern gate is lounging lazily in the slanting morning sun. As soon as Zipagauta saw the relaxed position of the boy standing in the doorway he knew that the Zipa had not died yet; That news would spread to Saguamanchica’s Cercado as soon as born, and the boy would have a different face.

Zipagauta solicitous, and Nemequene full of passion and joy, went to see the young teacher. Popón’s hut was near Teusaquillo[8], the recreation farm of the zipa, and of Ubaque[9], the nearest town. To get to it from the capital it was necessary to cross the Funza River[10]. The day was splendid with a canopy of tempera blues, a few wispy clouds like cotton lint suspended in a pleasant flat calm. When the young Nemequene noticed that everything was splendid, he felt as he usually did, like a protégé of Chiminigagua[11].  Such was the vanity that Nemequene had at this age that he felt everything was ready for him, if the warmth of the sun on the skin, that Suhe[12] was like this because he was going to walk that day, and everything gave him a joy that echoed in his youth and good health, in his body warm from the walk, in his heart from the happiness of being just a short distance from the bohío of the youngest chyquy[13] throughout the kingdom of Cundinamarca[14], the land of the condor

They arrived very early at the river bank and not feeling tired. The rafter crossed the Funza with the parsimony of one who repeats himself, who does it without thinking. Zipagauta also put on the face of an idiot, and both resemble a sublime painting. Nemequene thought of the boredom of immortality, in the raftsman's face he saw the divine yawn that produces what the human seeks to bequeath, to immortalize; like the writing, the pictograms, the megalithic constructions, the mummies, the vision exalted Nemequene.

He did not think about the funerary rafter who would cross for the last time the zipa that was dying on the weightless spider web raft towards the perfect and final underground dwelling[15]. He thought of the six rowers and the ubsaques that would accompany his uncle Saguamanchica at the time of his coronation as the new zipa[16]. His dream was not unreasonable because Saguamanchica had been in retirement for 6 years[17] preparing to rule. He had a blood bond with a powerful clan and was even related to the zipa's house on his mother's side, guarantee of lineage, certainty of blood. At the time of claiming dignities, the bond with the aunt was worth more than with the father, who could be deceived[18] and his son not carry his blood.

However, it was a dream since Saguamanchica was not the zipa's nephew and, therefore, was not his undisputed successor. The zipa who died left no nephew and had to find a successor among the bravest men of the best families. Nemequene knew that his family was one of those and that his uncle Saguamanchica would be a candidate. He imagined himself in his position, which was easy since, as his nephew, he would succeed him. He did not understand the difficulty of the test that the zipa applicants had to pass. He was too young to understand what importance the government of the genitals could have on a zipa and his decisions when reigning.

The rafter looked at Nemequene thinking of a good corn arepa, or a sip of the múcura[19], with the stupid immortal face that young Nemequene had wanted to see. The rafter was a simple person like most men and women he transported daily.

Nemequene, on the other hand, completely convinced by his vain youth that he was invested with a great design, that he had an extraordinary mission, thought about how he should govern the Muisca nation when his turn came and imagined the puerile things that a man could imagine, a young man, almost a child, but with great intelligence and ample capacity to regulate his dreams and dictate the necessary laws to make his game possible. He firmly believed that Saguamanchica would be a zipa and that he, his nephew, would inherit it. He dreamed that he would bring order to his kingdom and bring prosperity to his nation and lasting peace. Imagine the absent-minded face that the dreamy Nemequene could have and why he attracted the gaze of the rafter with surprise and that of his protector, Zipagauta, with concern.

At last, Nemequene saw the glow of the golden sheet of tumbaga[20] that he could imagine hanging in the house of the chyquy Popón, an instantaneous brightness, immense for the retina, blinding, was shot on the flat horizon of the immense and green savannah, a few minutes away. His heart became like a hummingbird, because Popón, a few years older than him, was one of the clearest minds and an enlightened young man, the most promising sage that the Kingdom of the People had.

Two dumb dogs came out to meet them[21] tirelessly wagging their tails. From within came the youthful voice of the newly initiated as chyquy. The meeting was effusive, although a little fatherly for Nemequene's liking, he wanted to be treated as an equal, but really wanted to be treated as the most special of men.

Zipagauta in his thirties, a farmer and servant of Saguamanchica, did not understand at what sacred hour a young man like Popón had learned so much and how could he keep it in his memory as if he were one of the elders. Even stranger was the high tone and the explanations that Popón used with Nemequene, who was almost a child. Zipagauta believed that the boy's gestures of assent were nothing more than signs of admiration for Popón, that indeed, Nemequene did not understand anything.

Popón had met Nemequene in the Iguaque lagoon. By chance, both families visited the cradle of the Muiscas. Popón attracted Nemequene's attention when he heard him ask one of the adults in his family, how long has Bachué existed? Nemequene kept a distance consistent with the shyness of his age. The other children ran through the thin air and suffocated to the bottom of their diaphragm. Nemequene sitting on the shore of the lagoon was deep in thought. Popón, who guessed it from his abstracted face, approached him.

- What do you think about so much?

The boy, Nemequene, was surprised and took a while to answer.

- About how long ago Bachué left with her son.

- So? Popon asked.

- It occurs to me, began Nemequene timidly, that if we knew how many Muiscas we are today, we could count the generations and know when it happened.

- But if a man lives longer than he has fingers and toes, we won't have enough fingers to count so many Muiscas, Popón mocked and ended with a laugh.

They became friends. They shared a curiosity that devoured them, a messianic conviction of themselves, an itch to know the truth and justice, and a competition between them that goaded their studies.

Ever since Nemequene arrived, he has seated with Popón on some very suitable stones. A stick and the earth served as an improvised board to expose all the known geography and redraw every pictogram. As Suhe hid and the darkness gave way, the very thin air of this savannah at 2600 meters above sea level began to cool rapidly and they decided that it would be convenient to make a fire because it was not the time to stop talking.

Popón still lived with his mother who, knowing the importance of Nemequene's family, wanted to ingratiate herself with him and arranged the food with abundant meats and a good amount of potatoes, arepas, and chili[22]. Every so often, she returned to praise her son in front of Nemequene. She was dazed with pride for him.

With the last bite of dinner, they resumed their talk with enthusiasm. The subject of pictograms was a broad and delicate one. Popón discovered that Nemequene's thoughts, his questions, brought him too close to heresy.

- The pictograms are there to be interpreted by anyone, by me, for example. Nemequene said.

- As much as the guayacán, or the condor.

- No, because these pictograms are signs of the Muiscas, they are their memories, their heritage, the others are signs of Chiminigagua, replied Nemequene.

- The flowers and the clouds are different every day, and they are not for anyone to read Chiminigagua did not want it that way, said Popón.

They argued animatedly, without friction. Popón knew the subject more than Nemequene. He drew from memory almost all the existing symbols and knew well their meaning and the definitions they acquired when joined. They discussed specific details of the pictograms such as which were painted directly by Bochica[23] and which by chyquys in later times? But above all, Popón was interested in those that Bochica had left from the looms, and those that some chyquys Guanes[24] had made of Bochica. Both regarded Bochica painters as chyquys very pious but modest artists, and did not give any naturalistic credit to the portraits.

They spoke quickly, taking the word away, interrupting each other, skewered and happy because the subject fascinated both of them. At this time of night, they listed the difficult pictograms to access. Nemequene made fun of Popón: To see what there is in Pasca[25]  you need permission from the Sutagaos[26], or ask my uncle, when he becomes zipa, to lend you 40 thousand soldiers.

Almost at midnight Popón was silent for a moment with his eyes closed, he had a bad face, Nemequene thought that he had been ill because of the food. After a while he stopped and said to Nemequene: You will not be able to stay, we will see the pictograms of Sibaté[27] on another occasion, we must return to Bacatá[28], the zipa is dead. They lay down on the beds of fique and reeds braided as Bochica had taught, made by the studious hands of Popón[29], but they were slow to fall asleep.

Nemequene, with her head full of ideas and her youthful fluids, wove a dream: at first he saw the Iguaque lagoon[30] On his elevated throne mistily presented, he immediately saw Bachué, the mother goddess coming out of the lagoon, then he saw the child she was carrying in her arms and realized that this child was him. Then he was turned into a little dragon[31] seeing her face from her mother's bosom. She was barely leaving the lagoon and he was already in love with her. Then came the remorse for the sin of incestuous sex and the thousands of descendants they had left came for them to punish them, to bury them alive[32]. Nemequene felt enormous relief when the goddess, sticking to the myth, turned them both into snakes, and they were able to crawl to the lagoon and dive to flee.

Popón woke him up very close to dawn. The zipazgo was without zipa, in a moment of suspension, like a tightrope walker who, after a quick movement to correct, freezes in a delicate and unsteady balance. Nemequene felt happy, included in a privileged clan and moment. At last, he was among the first at the coronation of a zipa, at the burial of another, at parties and funerals. He felt dizzy from entering the world of those who rule, from being of the chosen ones. How long had he waited for this moment? At last, he would, no doubt, stop being named by all his little game friends, but... he couldn't stop dreaming, wanted to be a general, wanted to be an advisor, wanted to be a town crier[33], and later he wanted to be zipa.

- The sun is rising, we must prepare ourselves, harassed the young chyquy.

- What's in the fire?

- Hot cocoa, the chyquy answered and began to serve.

They drank it with delight because it was gelid. They left the bohio. The Cerros[34] were black, against the light, behind them the glow of the morning, the full face of Suhe, so the hills looked like slabs, stone curtains, background, or the wall of the enormous Cercado of the nation. They walked with their backs to them, moving away, returning to the ferryboat on the Funza River. The way back seemed to Nemequene 20 times shorter than the one to go because the conversation with his friend and teacher had hidden all the steps, fatigue, and obstacles from him. Not even the many people who ran into their loads, along the way, managed to interrupt their chat, only the low, circular, insistent flight around them of an enormous condor stopped them and plunged them into an abrupt silence. Nemequene looked at Popón's face, which, in turn, gave him a very different expression from the one he had brought up until then.

- Do you know who the new zipa is? Is my uncle Saguamanchica?

- I cannot know the name, but I believe that the new zipa will wage war, that many years of battles will come, and that not even excessive blood will bring peace.

- Will you and I die? Nemequene asked.

- I don't know the future, answered Popón, I only know some things that the light of Chiminigagua allows me to see.

Nemequene became upset with the vision of Popón because if he died young his studies, his preparation, and his dreams would be in vain, and if he survives, will be forced to witness the pain and see the blood of the Muiscas run. He prayed that his friend was wrong because he was determined to make the Muisca kingdom the largest in the known world.

In front of them, the city of Bacatá appeared with a dance of sparkles, like iridescent drops of water that the wind returns to the sky, like fireflies in heat. Bohíos were already crowding each other, announcing from hundreds of steps behind that the capital of the zipazgo would soon be visible to show off its beautifully cast plates, its golden gold. Like any Muisca city, Bacatá had always preferred the red huts, adorned with gold plates hanging in the wind, so that they dazzle with jumps and tinkling clashes.

- It's market day, a good day for a funeral, commented Popón.

- It's the funeral day, good business for the market, replied Nemequene.

Popón celebrated the note and added:

- And the funeral wouldn't be good if it wasn't for an important person, that's why I like Bacatá because the true Muisca society is there, Bacatá should attract the best brains of Sogamoso[35], Hunza[36] and Ramiriquí[37]. I propose, but I, easily, let myself get excited, Popón said resignedly.

- We better enter from the north side, I want to buy something from a Guane before he arrives with his merchandise at the plaza. Nemequene asked.

- Very wise, Popón noted, because nothing better to entangle a trade than barter in which more than one buyer participates.

Although both felt in control of their lives, really much more than that; owners of the future of their town, they knew they had to convince Zipagauta to be able to change the route.

- Yes, please, Nemequene asked.

Zipagauta pushed himself around a bit, put up some obstacles, and, finally, agreed sure that his seniority with the family and the trust they had placed in him would protect him from any reprimand if they were discovered.

They reached the north side and easily identified one of the Guanes by his dress.

-  Do you have tortillas with big ass ants?[38] Nemequene asked.

-  Yes, answer the Guane.

-  With corn?

-  No, with yucca[39].

Nemequene made a gesture to underline his annoyance and said to Popón, my aunt likes corn. What do I do, take her yucca? Ask if it is sweet or brava yucca[40].

Sweet, said the Guane who could hear everything.

-  Give me twice twenty, and I will give you a block of salt[41] from the best of the Nemocón mines.

Accepted the exchange[42] the Guane, and Nemequene told him where to pick up the pan de sal.

-  Who are you buying that gift for? Popon asked.

Nemequene did not answer, busy as he was choosing the best tortillas. He did it carefully, checking well the ant tails that protruded from the tortilla and that were responsible for that crunchy texture and that flavor so similar to fried peanuts[43].

The red and normally quiet Bacatá, which housed some 30,000 Muiscas at this time, was today in an uproar in all its roads and open areas, by some 250,000 men, women and even children, who came from all the cardinal towns of the kingdom. Hundreds of Chyquys had come from as far away as Sogamoso, Fusagasugá[44], and the Llanos[45]. Merchants had arrived, as usual four times a moon[46], but this time, as if they had predicted the opportunity, they came from the Caribbean coast bringing essential shells to mambear[47], los Coreguajes[48] from the depths of the eastern plains brought large numbers of parrots and macaws, the Quimbayas[49] harassed as they were these days by their scarcity of salt, had come with a good supply of gold. The land as if it wanted to celebrate had delivered in that week a huge vein in Muzo[50], and the muzos brought their woven cotton handkerchiefs, swollen with emeralds. There were the hunters with a lot of prey, those who still brought in the nets the birds[51], the fishermen, all in abundance, as if Chiminigagua in his infinite goodness had contributed the best for that date of burial and succession.

––––––––

They kept arriving from all corners of the kingdom. A second entourage from Bosa arrived[52], other from Fontibón[53], Cajicá soldiers arrived[54], the cacique of Guatavita appeared[55] with 500 men, the one from Suesca came[56], the one from Tabio[57], from Ubaque. One by one all the great lords arrived in their litters[58], adorned with nose rings and pectorals of the most exquisite gold work[59], with their plumes and their best clothes, accompanied by their personal guard, part of their wives, servants for different trades and some Panche slaves[60].

Hours passed, the fotutos and other instruments filled the air with a sad and persistent melody, accompanied by the cries of the spontaneous mourners, trying to overcome a compact murmur studded here and there by a laugh, by someone shouting the name of another, by the cry of a curí[61] sacrifice, or by the desperate and yet sometimes beautiful squawk of the more than 20 species of birds trapped and for sale. Between the members of the larger Cercado and the other principals or ubsaques[62] from the southern region, tension grew, because the powerful zaque had not sent his emissaries warning whether or not he was going to be present at the