The original loves of the Americas
The great love stories of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas: Ollantay and Cusi Coyllur in the Inca world, the Guaraní legends of Iguazú, Andean loves turned into mountains and flowers.
The warrior who became a volcano
The warrior sent to war who receives a false report of his death; the princess dies of grief and he watches over her body forever. The two become Mexico's twin volcanoes.
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The Inca love with a happy ending
The common-born general Ollantay loves Cusi Coyllur ("Joyful Star"), daughter of emperor Pachacútec; rebuffed for not being royal, he rebels for a decade while she is imprisoned, until the new emperor pardons and reunites them.
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The love that created Iguazú Falls
The maiden Naipí, destined to be sacrificed to the serpent god M'Boi, flees by canoe with the warrior Tarobá; the enraged god splits the river to create the falls, turning her to rock and him to a tree leaning over the water.
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The legend of the Vitória-régia
The maiden Naiá, obsessed with becoming a star to join the moon Jaci, sees his reflection in a lake, dives to embrace it and drowns; Jaci turns her into the "star of the waters," the giant Amazon water lily.
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Two mountains that reconciled
The enmity of two kings passes to their sons, who kill each other but forgive in death; Pachamama turns their stars into the snow peaks Illimani and Illampu, their snow "tears of regret."
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They loved and fought for freedom
The leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares, the great refuge of self-liberated enslaved people in Brazil: warriors and lovers who resisted the slave empire side by side.
Read the storyThe poet-cacica and the last Taíno warrior
The cacica of Xaragua, famed for her areítos and her beauty, and the chief of Maguana who led the first Taíno rebellion against the Spanish: two sovereigns of Quisqueya joined in love and resistance, both destroyed by the conquest.
Read the storyOllantay and Cusi Coyllur: a commoner general who loves the daughter of the Inca emperor Pachacútec. The play "Ollantay" is the peak of Quechua literature and, rare in the canon, has a happy ending.