'The Indians of the Andes believe in the existence of angels of death who have white skin and who cut people into little pieces. Nobody knows precisely why they believe in these 'pistacos', but it is commonly assumed that it is a legacy of the civilising influence of the Spanish conquistadores and the enlightened activities of the Inquisition. It is still dangerous for the white man to go into some parts of the Cordillera, not just because of the padrones, the robbers, but because of cases of mistaken identity where public-spirited cholos think that they are bravely destroying pistacos to the greater benefit of mankind.
Remedios, when she was a little child with a round belly - earning her the nickname 'Barrigona' - and two little black plaits and big round eyes, was already a materialist. She did not believe in God, or spirits, or pistacos. When she grew older she still did not believe in God, or spirits, but she knew for certain that the pistacos were real, and that their existence was not a superstition, for she had seen them with her own eyes.
She did not believe in the spirits of the earth, the rocks, the waters, the forests and the valleys, to whom one offered a little piece of whatever one was eating, saying, "Take, eat, so that you do not eat me." She did not believe that if you fell over running you had to wrap yourself hastily in your skirt so that you did not fall pregnant to the earth spirit. Nor when she fell over did she believe that you had to place a little earth in your mouth so that you ate the spirit before it could eat you. Nor did she believe that the spirits could melt you down to use for tallow. But she did come to believe in pistacos.'
The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts
Page 32-33
*Pistacos: A mythological boogeyman figure in the Andes region of South America.
Barrigona: Pot-bellied.
Cholo: A Latin American with Indian blood; a mestizo. A lower-class Mexican, esp. in an urban area.
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