PREFACE I (of III)
If we wrote "water is wet" someone, somewhere, without a doubt, would stand up, point his finger upwards and argue otherwise.
With these Chronicles, mindless as they are of sacred tenets if what we learned is at variance with the tenets, we shall have, no doubt, packs of dissenters barking at us their criticism - from magisterial to derisive.
We did not, though, devote so many years of energy only to repeat yet once more the usual stereotypes.
These Chronicles are a straight account of what we really saw, what we really read, what we really heard. If barking, offended or disparaging, there must be, so be it.
The photographs follow the same philosophy. Undoctored, they show things the way things really are.
Those who would follow our steps would find what we found.
PREFACE II
If an Extra-Terrestrial Expedition came to Planet Earth, if it landed on the American Continent, if it visited the American Continent in complete (initial) ignorance and with total (initial) dispassion, these Chronicles and these photographs would be the impressions that this Extra-Terrestrial Expedition would take back to its home planet of the American Continent and, by extrapolation, of the whole Planet Earth.
That Extra-Terrestrial Expedition, though, probably would not dare come back to Earth after realizing that, in its innocence, it saw some things that Earthlings do not want to see, or in a manner in which Earthlings do not want to see them.
PREFACE III
Not until late in the Expedition did we realize how comfortable we had always felt in the varied circumstances we faced. Along with the realization came the explanation. Why, of course -
1.We are not (alphabetically) Angloes with prejudices or misconceptions with >>>regard to Latinoes (more exactly, Iberoes).
2.We are not Latinoes with prejudices or misconceptions with regard to >>>Angloes.
3.Our genes and our mother tongue are, impartially, Czech.
4.Yet, we have lived, prior to the Expedition, years numerous enough and >>>equally enough divided in Buenos Aires and New York as to acquire enough preliminary feel for the Ibero and the Anglo souls and acquire it equally enough for both.
5.We have equal fluency in both the Spanish and English languages, permitting >>>us identical coverage of both areas of influence, in contrast with the necessarily unequal, therefore almost necessarily slanted, coverage of the Anglo part by an Ibero with faltering knowledge of English or of the Ibero part by an Anglo with superficial knowledge of Spanish/Portuguese. Not to imention our fluent knowledge of French for Haiti and Québec; leaving only Portuguese for Brazil in a less than perfect category - though very workable.
6.We have the mental agility and precision of University education, and we >>>had an initial total ignorance of any and all matters covered by this Expedition - ensuring thus freedom from prejudice, as a photographic plate unconcerned with what it will record but recording it well.
7.How wonderful would be the wisdom of a lifetime if it were not encrusted in >>>a petrified cube of interests and beliefs. How wonderful would be the universal inquisitiveness and marveling of childhood if they had the maturity to do the best of themselves. We are so grateful that, by some twist outside our will and therefore merit, by gaining maturity we did not lose our childhoodness.
8.We are so grateful for our three high endurances (alphabetically) >>>emotional, intellectual, physical - common, singly, without a doubt, but less common in troika.
How many individuals could, or would, successfully sleep in the freeze of minus 40 degrees Centigrade or Fahrenheit (it makes no difference), breathe the lack of oxygen well over 6,000 meters above sea level, walk and slip nine days through a jungle; become an efficient book-worm months and years on end; endure the anxiety of a broken differential where the differential cannot, by law, be replaced, or the anxiety of eleven days of a losing battle with customs that ended well only by an unforeseeable miracle at the Presidency level of that country.
9.We are so privileged to have unfailing health in all circumstances, long >>>term unfailing health without which nothing would matter.
10.We do not owe one cent or auspices to anyone. Owing anything as such is >>>being enslaved. We are free to adjust every aspect of the Expedition for best results without reporting to anyone. We are free not to adjust our findings and thoughts without fear of cutting off someone's cents or auspices. We do count our pennies - spending each penny is painful - but freedom of initiative and of untainted thought is a fortune.
Yes, all this is what makes us so comfortable with this Expedition.