MC: “Some people just live things like if there were a movie or a game: What is the score? One-zero? Did they find them? Any casualties? And with due respect, the worst of the questions about this story: Did they have to eat each…? Gosh! I can’t even finish the phrase! It is morbid!”
Agó: “It is morbid. I am surprised that somebody can ask such a thing! In fact, I don’t approve it but it never affected me personally. I recall the day they were found. It was Christmas and my father gathered my sister and me and said to us: ‘Carlitos had to eat his friends.’ We looked at each other and we were not judgmental; we simply accepted. Maybe, to our father, it was harder due to the fact that he was his father and an old man. People take this story somewhat like this: ‘This is what happened, they ate other people and they survived. Period.’ There is more to it than that; my brother, Carlitos was addicted to drugs for 10 years after that. He went to rehab and I helped him out. He says drugs were his ‘Second Mountain’.”
MC: “What does he do for a living?”
Agó: “He gives lectures about the Andes Mountains. He is outstanding! He has great success! He talks very well, he tells his life experiences. The accident gave him the opportunity to start a career as a lecturer. I sometimes ask myself if there is something else behind all this….”
MC: “Here’s what I think: On the one hand it is good that he could turn something so traumatic into a positive thing but it is also a way of remaining in the past. Am I right?”
Agó: “Absolutely. I understand and value what my brother does, truly; but it is like repeating the story again and again. You can’t be a normal person after what he has been through.”
MC: “Well, maybe it is his comfort zone.”
Agó: “There are 15 (survivors) now; one of them died… and I observe them and try to figure out who had a spiritual awakening. Some of them believe in God, are committed to the Lord but I haven’t seen a transformation in any of them yet. I am still waiting. If it happens it will be amazing! Can you think of a better MBA than somebody teaching from this vast experience? We could learn so many things!”
MC: “What is the first thing you do when you get up?”
Agó: “I meditate. I have been practising transcendental mediation for a long time and it is a unique tool.”
MC: “And before going to bed?”
Agó: “I think about my day and make a balance of the good and the bad so I can improve. I read and study Rudolf Steiner and learned a lot about insight.”
MC: “Are you married?”
Agó: “Yes, second marriage. I have two children: my daughter – from my first marriage to a Brazilian – lives in NYC and she gave me three marvellous grandchildren, and a son- from my second marriage- who is a musician and lives in Vienna.”
(She is silent for a long time. Then she continues…)
“I’ve been with my present husband for a long time. He met me as a free woman. He chose me as an artist, as an independent woman who travels and works a lot. We met and decided to share life in freedom, to respect each other.”
MC: “I love that!”
Agó: “I always say to him, ‘It is you or nobody’ because when a woman has the need to grow internally, to develop in what she does; to do things that add value to others and she is curious and a doer, well, she is not every man’s dream. Some men like a woman to be at home all day or one who cooks – there is nothing wrong with that, though – but that is certainly not me. As regards love, it is spiritual. When you discover love inside yourself, like a miracle you were granted, well, it is then that you are able to give love to your children, husband, family, your home. But you have to discover that love which, in my views, it is spiritual.”
MC: “Is there anything you would like to add?”
Agó: “I wish that many people on this planet had the chance of experiencing this spiritual awakening. Once you are conscious of the love of Christ and spirituality there is no way back. It is such an enormous and vast path to transit that you will never look back.”
MC: “Thanks so much”
Agó: “Thank you…
Agó hugs me again and I feel her intense, never-ending warmth. I ask her to share a moment of silence; tell her that she will be my guide. I close my eyes, smell the scent of the grass; I inhale deeply… I can feel the rays of the sun stroking my soul, my faith becomes stronger. My anxiety vanishes.
A sweet voice brings me back to the present time. It is Agó: “We try to wake up, little by little, at your pace…”
I open my eyes and I look at Agó Páez. An exchange of magical energy has taken place. I leave bathed in delight. Agó has offered me her heart. We embrace each other fraternally. My trip toward awareness has begun. Amen…
© Copyright María Cabeza 2019
