The Lute Player, 1612-1620, oil on canvas. 

Orazio Gentileschi,  1563-1639, Florentine;  the father of Artemisia Gentileschi.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

Came to mind the Argentinian pampas at dusk. Like a sea of gold whose farther shore you cannot see.

 

We had left Buenos Aires and were travelling south west across the area called Las Pampas.

 

We were on our way upwards to San Martin de los Andes in the Argentinian foothills of the Andes. 

 

Among the wonders we witnessed when we had been in San Martin for a few days was, early in the morning, a sprinkling of dark brown earth over all the rose bushes, on the leaves of trees, on the pathways, rooves of houses. 

 

Earthquake in the Chilean Andes, they said. On the other side.

 

The eyes of my people have never seen this, I thought.  Any of it. So I have not forgotten it.  Any of it.

 

Giving thanks.

 

 

Gracias a la Vida

Nano Stern, Chilean born 1985, and Joan Baez, American born 1941, on the latter’s 75th birthday

 

 

 

A song composed and first performed in 1966 by the Chilean, Violetta Parra, 1917-1967. 

 

Most famously reprised by the Argentinian, Mercedes Sosa, 1935-2009; and  byJoan Baez. 

 

 

 

Detail, as above