Day 110 - Mojon Con Cara

Mojon Con Cara

One of my favorite Bolivian stories is the Mojon Con Cara.  Here is my rendition of the old story.

In eighteenth century, the Calle Republiquetas was not what it is today.  This was one of the more remote and less crowded places in town.  Houses did not join side to side, but had empty lots filled with the colorful blooming trees of Santa Cruz.  There were sidewalks along the street.  It was a nice neighborhood to be raised in.

Not too far from the plaza was a quaint house where lived a vivacious young girl.  She was funny and very beautiful, with dark eyes and black hair.  Her mother though was very protective.  She longed for her beautiful daughter to marry one of the important men of Santa Cruz.  So the mother kept her inside and did not let her roam the streets.

Yet one day, the lovely girl was leaning out her window enjoying the town alive out of the window.  She saw a handsome young man, a mere worker, walk by.  She rolled her eyes at him in a flirtatious way and the young man was in love.  Every day he came by just to speak to her and tell her how much he loved her.  Quietly they talked, the window keeping them apart.

One day the mother noticed them talking.

“There is no way you will marry my daughter,” she exclaimed.  “Give up your quest!”

But he did not.  He stood at their door, day by day, waiting that a window might open or a door, in hopes he would get a glimpse of his beloved.

One day the mother said to him, as she was leaving the house and seeing him standing there waiting patiently, “I would allow my daughter to marry you, if this mojon grew a face!”  She laughed mockingly as she walked away.

A mojon is like a hitching post.  They placed these in front of houses.  They were also used to mark the property lines, and to keep street traffic off the sidewalks.

The distraught young man did not know what to do.  He looked at the mojon and came up with an idea.  He started carving it.  Day by day, he returned and patiently carved into the mojon, and the mother would laugh at him. 

One morning he was finished.  He had created a lifelike face in the mojon. The mother saw the face carved into the mojon, but the man young man was not there.  Curious, she looked up and down the street, thinking he was away for just a moment.  She shrugged her shoulders and went back into the house.  That is when she noticed her house was quiet, too quiet.  She looked in every room, but her daughter was not there.  They had slipped away in secret.

But the Mojon con Cara, worn with age, is still there, a romantic reminder of the Romeo and Juliet of Santa Cruz.

Translated and adapted from www.educa.com.bo

You can't imagine how long it took me to find this.  I searched two different times and didn't see it, even though it is 5 feet tall!  And you'll never guess where it was.  It was along a street I pass when I walk to the plaza.  I was about to give up looking and suddenly, there it was in front of me, on the corner of Republiquetas and Rene Moreno.  I have probably passed this 50 times since I arrived in July.  I am sure others pass by and no nothing of the story.

Come visit and I will show you the Mojon con Cara.