Thorgalaeg
Deity
"I am the great traitor. There can be no one greater!
Whoever even thinks about deserting will be cut into 198 pieces!
And then trampled upon until you can paint the walls with him .
Whoever eats one grain too many or drinks one drop of water too much will be locked up for 155 years! lf I, Aguirre , want the birds to drop dead from the trees the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the Wrath of God ! The earth I walk upon sees me and quakes!
Whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches.
But whoever deserts..."
Such man is Aguirre acording to the magnificient Werner Herzog´s movie "aguirre the wrath the god" (1977). This of course is only a movie and the historical facts are a bit different. In fact, in this case, reality surpasses fiction by far. However the lines above sumarize very well Aguirre´s mentality, like we can deduce from his real history.
The real Lope of Aguirre was born on 1511 in Oñate ( Guipúzcoa, Spain), son of a poor but noble family he marched to Seville in search of fortune. Acording to the chronicler Francisco Vazquez speaking about Aguirre in his last years: "He was a short, deformed man. He was walking always on foot and loaded with a lot of weight; wearing a couple of heavy mails coats plus breastplate and helmet with steel mask, long sword, plus the spear or arquebus on hand. Everybody in his expedition i have been able to talk to said that they never saw Aguirre sleeping or wearing no armor"
Aguirre transferred to America in 1534-6, where he will have an intense and bloody career in Peru. In Potosí, he is fastened and beaten under instructions of the judge Esquivel accused to infringe the laws protecting the Indians. He is condemned to walk barefooted along three years and four months and, once the judge's mandate was finalized, he gets his revenge stabbing Esquivel while was sleeping.
In that times, revolts were common in the new world. He takes part at 1552 in the revolt of Cuzco against the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza killing the governor Pedro de Hinojosa, he was condemned to death by this fact, but pardoned in the last moment. In 1553 the takes part in the sublevation of Sebastian Castilla. When the imperial command orders to exterminate the revoltings he must hide in a cave along an entire year, eating grass and roots until 1554 when Viceroy Alvarado grants him an amnesty in exchange for colaborate in the soffocation of a new revolt, the one of Franciso Hernandez Gijon. So, reincorporated to he loyalist side he is severely wounded at the battle of Chuguinga. He was then fifty years old, being old, crippled and deformed by the continuos fights and countless scars without any glory or fortune.
Under such circumstances he enrolls in 1559 in the expedition that the viceroy of the Peru, under command of Pedro of Ursúa, sends in search of Omagua country, better known as the mythical El Dorado. An imaginary land supossedly in some place in the deep Amazon forest, invented by the Indians, where gold was as common as sand. The expedition, formed by 300 soldiers, three brigs and several hundred Indians, departs from Santa Cruz de Saposoa in the Andes on September 26, 1560. Aguirre daughter Elvira, nearly idolized by his father, accompanies him. The expedition goes descending the Huallaga, Marañón and Amazon rivers. It is of course fruitless; the Boats and men get lost, the supplies become scarce . the troop's dissatisfaction increases and many ask for going back to Peru. Ursúa pays no attention and continues the journey, ignoring his men. Ursúa had like principal occupation to go to bed with his lover, a mestize woman called Inés Atienza; The superstitious soldiers attribute Ursua´s strange humour to the spell of his mixed racial beauty. All these factors lead into a conspiracy leaded naturally by Aguirre who skilfully instigate his fellow soldiers to kill Ursua. Aguirre decide to put in the expedition lead a puppet commander, a nobleman called Fernando de Guzman. The conspirators decide to write a letter to Felipe II exposing his motives. Lope of Aguirre writes it personally and signs as Aguirre the Treacherous, explaining that now they all are traitors to the king and declares war to Spanish Empire. In that letter he writes to the Spanish King:
"You have usurped our fame, life and honor. I am an one-handed man because your service. ... few kings go to hell, because you are not many ; But if there were many kings; No one would be able to go to heaven, because you all are worse than Lucifer, because your hunger and ambition to get sick of human blood ... Me and my companions do not want neither expect your pardon."
Becuase such letter some men in the expeditions takes him for a madman. On the other hand Aguirre and his comrades proclaim Guzman King of the new world. So, in not much time the rebels's camp had become a boiling of hatreds, passions, fears and envies, contributing to this situation the competition among the captains for Inés's favors. But Aguirre have created an entire net of confidents throughout the camp, thanks to them he discovers a conspiracy against him, and he answers drastically murdereing all his rivals including the suspicious ones as the priest Henao and of course Inés of Atienza who always was despised by Aguirre due to his mixed race. Finally Aguire kill his very own "King" Guzmán. taking himself the command, and proclaiming himself king of Peru. He abandons the unrealistic idea of finding the Dorado and decide to go to Panama and from there to conquer Peru. He descends the Marañon river (he called his men marañones becuse the Marañon river) then the Amazon and l then the Orinoco reaching the river´s mouth, where he conquers the Margarita island that found desert because every inhabitants abandoned it knowing that Aguirre was approaching.
Aguirre writes there another letter to Felipe II saying that the spanish monarch can not consider himself king of those lands anymore, becuase he did not risk anything there nor gratified the ones that did, He accuses him also of pretending to be Irreproachable while others get his hands dirty with blood in king´s benefit. Centuries later, Simón Bolívar would regard this enlightening letter as the New World's first declaration of independence.
Seeing he has not chance of get any ships, He tries to get to Peru through land. Reaching Venezuela, where he takes the city of Valencia spreading terror over all the region. But his mandate has clay feet since the distrust of his own men, the marañones is growing. Spanish authorities offer pardon to the ones that abandone him; In October 27, 1561, in Barquisimeto, alone and cornered, he stabs his daughter Elvira in order to she not become the "everybody´s whore". Finally two of his own marañones kill him of two arquebus shots.
Route of Augirre since Santa Cruz de Saposoa to Barquisimeto:
Posthumously, he stands for trial and convict by rebel and traitor. His head was exposed in an iron cage in Tocuyo. His right hand was sent to Mérida and the left hand, to Valencia ( Barquisimeto, Tocuyo, Mérida and Valencia are at present Venezuelan cities ) rest of the body was used as food by the dogs. About the four flags he used ( two black, yellow and blue other,all with two swords crossed over and the legend "I will endure." ) one of the black flags was displayed in Tocuyo next to Aguirre's head; The another black one kept in Barquisimeto, and the blue and the yellow ones were placed on the tomb of Aguirre's father at Santa María's church in Oñate, Spain where stayed until 1810.Likewise it was ordered that wherever Lope of Aguirre left house, the building were knocked down from the foundations, and his lands sown with salt.
Still nowadays Aguirre's is well remembered in Venezuelan rural zones where he is remembered as "the tyrant". The ignis fatuus that appear in the swamps are his ghost and the ones belonging to his men; the island Margarita bay where he landed is called the the Bay of the Traitor; In Tocuyo his death is celebrated with a procession every October 27; Barquisimeto's peasants consider that his spirit still appears at midnight close to where he died ; And in Peruvian jungle you can find a waterfall called Aguirre's Jump , where being at risk of death he recorded on a rock some mysterious symbols. Today, it is mandatory for inhabitants, to make the sign of the cross and praying if they are in front of this symbols.
For many people, Lope of Aguirre is the extreme sublimation of traditional Spanish behavior, capable of the best and the worst at the same time, from the most glorious heroic deeds to the mostdespicable infamies, conceding an absolute value to the Honor. He even kills his daughter to safeguard his honor. Do not forgive neither forgets any offense and not taking revenge is for him an offense itself. In his letters he describes himself as Pilgrim, greatest traitor, wrath of God and prince of freedom, in fact he gained all those tittles.
Ending with final lines from Herzog´s movie:
"We will take Mexico from Cortez. What great treachery this will be! Then, all of New Spain will be in our hand and we'll stage history ike others stage plays. I, the Wrath of God will marry my own daughter and with her I will found the purest dynasty the earth has ever seen. Together we shall rule this entire continent. We will endure.
I am the Wrath of God! Who else is with me?"
Whoever even thinks about deserting will be cut into 198 pieces!
And then trampled upon until you can paint the walls with him .
Whoever eats one grain too many or drinks one drop of water too much will be locked up for 155 years! lf I, Aguirre , want the birds to drop dead from the trees the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the Wrath of God ! The earth I walk upon sees me and quakes!
Whoever follows me and the river, will win untold riches.
But whoever deserts..."
Such man is Aguirre acording to the magnificient Werner Herzog´s movie "aguirre the wrath the god" (1977). This of course is only a movie and the historical facts are a bit different. In fact, in this case, reality surpasses fiction by far. However the lines above sumarize very well Aguirre´s mentality, like we can deduce from his real history.
The real Lope of Aguirre was born on 1511 in Oñate ( Guipúzcoa, Spain), son of a poor but noble family he marched to Seville in search of fortune. Acording to the chronicler Francisco Vazquez speaking about Aguirre in his last years: "He was a short, deformed man. He was walking always on foot and loaded with a lot of weight; wearing a couple of heavy mails coats plus breastplate and helmet with steel mask, long sword, plus the spear or arquebus on hand. Everybody in his expedition i have been able to talk to said that they never saw Aguirre sleeping or wearing no armor"
Aguirre transferred to America in 1534-6, where he will have an intense and bloody career in Peru. In Potosí, he is fastened and beaten under instructions of the judge Esquivel accused to infringe the laws protecting the Indians. He is condemned to walk barefooted along three years and four months and, once the judge's mandate was finalized, he gets his revenge stabbing Esquivel while was sleeping.
In that times, revolts were common in the new world. He takes part at 1552 in the revolt of Cuzco against the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza killing the governor Pedro de Hinojosa, he was condemned to death by this fact, but pardoned in the last moment. In 1553 the takes part in the sublevation of Sebastian Castilla. When the imperial command orders to exterminate the revoltings he must hide in a cave along an entire year, eating grass and roots until 1554 when Viceroy Alvarado grants him an amnesty in exchange for colaborate in the soffocation of a new revolt, the one of Franciso Hernandez Gijon. So, reincorporated to he loyalist side he is severely wounded at the battle of Chuguinga. He was then fifty years old, being old, crippled and deformed by the continuos fights and countless scars without any glory or fortune.
Under such circumstances he enrolls in 1559 in the expedition that the viceroy of the Peru, under command of Pedro of Ursúa, sends in search of Omagua country, better known as the mythical El Dorado. An imaginary land supossedly in some place in the deep Amazon forest, invented by the Indians, where gold was as common as sand. The expedition, formed by 300 soldiers, three brigs and several hundred Indians, departs from Santa Cruz de Saposoa in the Andes on September 26, 1560. Aguirre daughter Elvira, nearly idolized by his father, accompanies him. The expedition goes descending the Huallaga, Marañón and Amazon rivers. It is of course fruitless; the Boats and men get lost, the supplies become scarce . the troop's dissatisfaction increases and many ask for going back to Peru. Ursúa pays no attention and continues the journey, ignoring his men. Ursúa had like principal occupation to go to bed with his lover, a mestize woman called Inés Atienza; The superstitious soldiers attribute Ursua´s strange humour to the spell of his mixed racial beauty. All these factors lead into a conspiracy leaded naturally by Aguirre who skilfully instigate his fellow soldiers to kill Ursua. Aguirre decide to put in the expedition lead a puppet commander, a nobleman called Fernando de Guzman. The conspirators decide to write a letter to Felipe II exposing his motives. Lope of Aguirre writes it personally and signs as Aguirre the Treacherous, explaining that now they all are traitors to the king and declares war to Spanish Empire. In that letter he writes to the Spanish King:
"You have usurped our fame, life and honor. I am an one-handed man because your service. ... few kings go to hell, because you are not many ; But if there were many kings; No one would be able to go to heaven, because you all are worse than Lucifer, because your hunger and ambition to get sick of human blood ... Me and my companions do not want neither expect your pardon."
Becuase such letter some men in the expeditions takes him for a madman. On the other hand Aguirre and his comrades proclaim Guzman King of the new world. So, in not much time the rebels's camp had become a boiling of hatreds, passions, fears and envies, contributing to this situation the competition among the captains for Inés's favors. But Aguirre have created an entire net of confidents throughout the camp, thanks to them he discovers a conspiracy against him, and he answers drastically murdereing all his rivals including the suspicious ones as the priest Henao and of course Inés of Atienza who always was despised by Aguirre due to his mixed race. Finally Aguire kill his very own "King" Guzmán. taking himself the command, and proclaiming himself king of Peru. He abandons the unrealistic idea of finding the Dorado and decide to go to Panama and from there to conquer Peru. He descends the Marañon river (he called his men marañones becuse the Marañon river) then the Amazon and l then the Orinoco reaching the river´s mouth, where he conquers the Margarita island that found desert because every inhabitants abandoned it knowing that Aguirre was approaching.
Aguirre writes there another letter to Felipe II saying that the spanish monarch can not consider himself king of those lands anymore, becuase he did not risk anything there nor gratified the ones that did, He accuses him also of pretending to be Irreproachable while others get his hands dirty with blood in king´s benefit. Centuries later, Simón Bolívar would regard this enlightening letter as the New World's first declaration of independence.
Seeing he has not chance of get any ships, He tries to get to Peru through land. Reaching Venezuela, where he takes the city of Valencia spreading terror over all the region. But his mandate has clay feet since the distrust of his own men, the marañones is growing. Spanish authorities offer pardon to the ones that abandone him; In October 27, 1561, in Barquisimeto, alone and cornered, he stabs his daughter Elvira in order to she not become the "everybody´s whore". Finally two of his own marañones kill him of two arquebus shots.
Route of Augirre since Santa Cruz de Saposoa to Barquisimeto:
Posthumously, he stands for trial and convict by rebel and traitor. His head was exposed in an iron cage in Tocuyo. His right hand was sent to Mérida and the left hand, to Valencia ( Barquisimeto, Tocuyo, Mérida and Valencia are at present Venezuelan cities ) rest of the body was used as food by the dogs. About the four flags he used ( two black, yellow and blue other,all with two swords crossed over and the legend "I will endure." ) one of the black flags was displayed in Tocuyo next to Aguirre's head; The another black one kept in Barquisimeto, and the blue and the yellow ones were placed on the tomb of Aguirre's father at Santa María's church in Oñate, Spain where stayed until 1810.Likewise it was ordered that wherever Lope of Aguirre left house, the building were knocked down from the foundations, and his lands sown with salt.
Still nowadays Aguirre's is well remembered in Venezuelan rural zones where he is remembered as "the tyrant". The ignis fatuus that appear in the swamps are his ghost and the ones belonging to his men; the island Margarita bay where he landed is called the the Bay of the Traitor; In Tocuyo his death is celebrated with a procession every October 27; Barquisimeto's peasants consider that his spirit still appears at midnight close to where he died ; And in Peruvian jungle you can find a waterfall called Aguirre's Jump , where being at risk of death he recorded on a rock some mysterious symbols. Today, it is mandatory for inhabitants, to make the sign of the cross and praying if they are in front of this symbols.
For many people, Lope of Aguirre is the extreme sublimation of traditional Spanish behavior, capable of the best and the worst at the same time, from the most glorious heroic deeds to the mostdespicable infamies, conceding an absolute value to the Honor. He even kills his daughter to safeguard his honor. Do not forgive neither forgets any offense and not taking revenge is for him an offense itself. In his letters he describes himself as Pilgrim, greatest traitor, wrath of God and prince of freedom, in fact he gained all those tittles.
Ending with final lines from Herzog´s movie:
"We will take Mexico from Cortez. What great treachery this will be! Then, all of New Spain will be in our hand and we'll stage history ike others stage plays. I, the Wrath of God will marry my own daughter and with her I will found the purest dynasty the earth has ever seen. Together we shall rule this entire continent. We will endure.
I am the Wrath of God! Who else is with me?"
) 
