Inspirado
en unos cursos a distancia que imparte la Universidad de Yale en su programa
abierto (OCW) se me ha despertado un gran interés por una etapa histórica a la
que no había prestado mucha atención anteriormente (bueno, por lo menos de una
manera estructurada): el siglo XIX en los Estados Unidos.
Dicho
así suena muy académico, pero…esta es la época de la conquista del Oeste, las
caravanas, los grandes ranchos, Chisum, el Oregon Trail, las estampidas, las
violentas ciudades en las rutas del ganado, los sheriffs, los pistoleros, Jesse
James, Billy el Niño, las diligencias, el ferrocarril, la fiebre del oro, la
guerra de secesión, Gettysburg, Shiloh, las guerras indias, Custer, Caballo
Loco, Toro Sentado,…en fin cientos de nombres y lugares reales, que por
cierto, ocuparon un puesto muy importante en la fantasía juvenil de mi
generación (la de los nacidos en 1960!).
Los
niños y jóvenes de hoy en día juegan en fabulosos mundos virtuales y en galaxias lejanas, pero casi
todos nosotros tuvimos el fuerte de madera y las figuritas de plástico, indios
de torso descubierto y plumas en la cabeza, soldados de azul a caballo (los
confederados grises no peleaban contra los indios, además perdieron y ya se
sabe lo que pasa), en el patio de recreo jugábamos a indios y vaqueros, nos
vimos todas las películas del Oeste y muchos devoramos las novelas de Marcial
Lafuente Estefanía y Zane Grey.
Si esta
época era fantástica como entorno de nuestros juegos, he de decir que es
absolutamente apasionante si se estudia
con rigor histórico. Todos aquellos míticos lugares encuentran su sitio en el
fabuloso escenario geográfico que se extiende al oeste del rio Mississippi, y
todos los personajes nos muestran sus caras reales, el heroísmo de muchos
desconocidos y la extremada vileza de algunos muy famosos, las autenticas
razones detrás de tantos episodios, entre ellos la sangrienta Guerra Civil en
la que las bajas americanas en ambos bandos duplicaron a las de la Segunda
Guerra Mundial con una población total muchísimo menor.
El
tiempo ya trascurrido permite que la versión de los vencedores no ahogue a la
de los vencidos, sean los colonos sobre los indios, los Yanquis sobre los
Confederados, o la Unión sobre los Estados, y podamos analizar con mayor rigor
las causas que impulsaron los apasionantes sucesos de este siglo.
Y como
después de la efusión histórica y estratégica siempre termino por caer hacia el
lado artístico de las cosas, cuelgo aquí algunas pinturas que retratan esta
época. He querido para empezar evitar los autores más famosos como Remington o
Russell, a los que algún día les dedicare un post monográfico.
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| Plunder from Sonora - Howard Terpning |
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| Crow Country - Howard Terpning |
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| Shield of Her Husband - Howard Terpning |
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| Cooling Off The Hard Way - Howard Terpning |
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| Crossing Below The Falls - Howard Terpning |
Far in the West there lies a desert land, where the mountains
Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous summits.
Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the gorge, like a gateway,
Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant's wagon,
Westward the Oregon flows and the Walleway and Owyhee.
Eastward, with devious course, among the Wind-river Mountains,
Through the Sweet-water Valley precipitate leaps the Nebraska;
And to the south, from Fontaine-qui-bout and the Spanish sierras,
Fretted with sands and rocks, and swept by the wind of the desert.
Numberless torrents, with ceaseless sound, descend to the ocean.
Like the great chords of a harp, in loud and solemn vibrations...
(Contd.)
Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and luminous summits.
Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the gorge, like a gateway,
Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant's wagon,
Westward the Oregon flows and the Walleway and Owyhee.
Eastward, with devious course, among the Wind-river Mountains,
Through the Sweet-water Valley precipitate leaps the Nebraska;
And to the south, from Fontaine-qui-bout and the Spanish sierras,
Fretted with sands and rocks, and swept by the wind of the desert.
Numberless torrents, with ceaseless sound, descend to the ocean.
Like the great chords of a harp, in loud and solemn vibrations...
(Contd.)
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| Encampment Surrounded By Mountains - Thomas Hill |
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| Mount Shasta from Castle Lake - Thomas Hill |
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| Squaw Valley near Now-ow-wa-aka (Old Grizzly's Den Invaded) - Thomas Hill |
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| Sugar Loaf Peak El Dorado County - Thomas Hill |
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| The Salmon Festival Columbia River - Thomas Hill |
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| Yosemite Valley - Thomas Hill |
...Spreading between these streams are the wondrous, beautiful prairies,
Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine.
Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple amorplias.
Over them wander the buffalo herds, and the elk and the roebuck;
Over them wander the wolves, and herds of riderless horses;
Tires that blast and blight, and winds that are weary with travel;
Over them wander the scattered tribes of Ishmael's children,
Staining the desert with blood; and above their terrible war trails
Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vulture,
Like the implacable soul of a chieftain slaughtered in battle,
By invisible stairs ascending and scaling the heavens.
Here and there rise smokes from the camps of these savage marauders;
Here and there rise groves from the margins of swiftrunning rivers;
And the grim, taciturn bear, the anchorite monk of the desert,
Climbs down their dark ravines to dig for roots by the brook-side,
While over all is the sky, the clear and crystalline heaven,
Like the protecting hand of God inverted above them.
The Far West - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sunshine.
Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple amorplias.
Over them wander the buffalo herds, and the elk and the roebuck;
Over them wander the wolves, and herds of riderless horses;
Tires that blast and blight, and winds that are weary with travel;
Over them wander the scattered tribes of Ishmael's children,
Staining the desert with blood; and above their terrible war trails
Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vulture,
Like the implacable soul of a chieftain slaughtered in battle,
By invisible stairs ascending and scaling the heavens.
Here and there rise smokes from the camps of these savage marauders;
Here and there rise groves from the margins of swiftrunning rivers;
And the grim, taciturn bear, the anchorite monk of the desert,
Climbs down their dark ravines to dig for roots by the brook-side,
While over all is the sky, the clear and crystalline heaven,
Like the protecting hand of God inverted above them.
The Far West - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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| Nez Perce Crossing Yellowstone - John Clymer |
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| Rocky Trail - John Clymer |
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| Crows Hunting Buffalo - John Clymer |
"There is no law, no restraint in this seething cauldron of vice and depravity.” – The New York Tribune describing Abilene, Kansas.
"They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. It ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring." - John Wesley Hardin.
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| Home Of The Navajo - Frank Tenney Johnson |
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| Camp of the Pale Face - Frank Tenney Johnson |
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| The Mesa - Frank Tenney Johnson |
"I'm not afraid to die like a man fighting, but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed." - Billy the Kid in a letter to Governor Lew Wallace, March 1879.
"Of all the eerie, dreary experiences, to be lost at night on the prairie ... then to hear the chorus of coyotes, like hyenas, laughing at one’s predicament.” – An emigrant recalling her fear when she and her fellow travelers temporarily lost their bearings while crossing the Great Plains.
"We never did hang the wrong one but once or twice, and them fellers needed to be hung anyhow jes' on general principles." - A nameless judge in the Old West.
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| Bently's Trading Post - Robert McGinnis |
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| Red River Valley - Robert McGinnis |
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| Tracker - Robert McGinnis |
"The more Indians we can kill... the less will have to be killed the next war, for the more I see of these Indians, the more convinced I am that they all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers." - General William Tecumseh Sherman
"I like to dance, but not in the air." - Billy the Kid
"All my life I wanted to be a bank robber. Carry a gun and wear a mask. Now that it's happened I guess I'm just about the best bank robber they ever had. And I sure am happy." - John Dillinger
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| Gold Dust - Robert McGinnis |
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| First Move - Robert McGinnis |
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| Searchers - Robert McGinnis |
"A pioneer is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung bob-wire over the dust that was left, poisoned the water, cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land and called it progress." - Charles M. Russell
"Gentlemen, I find the law very explicit on murdering your fellow man, but there's nothing here about killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed." - Judge Roy Bean
"If I owned Hell and Texas I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell." - General William Tecumseh Sherman
"Hang 'em first, try 'em later." - Judge Roy Bean
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| The Overseer - Mian Situ |
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| The Forty Niners - Mian Situ |
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| Beef, Beans and Biscuits - Mian Situ |
