Questions yet emerge about the disappearance of a prosperous, robust Mezoamerican civilisation; a powerful culture disappeared (almost literally) overnight. Did the plague 'get 'em'? It had to be a plague, since all pre-modern cultures were too stupid to wash their hands. Who or what killed them? Did they pack up and leave for Alaska?
Poetry rambles about in my mind. Ayamentu the potential carpenter became obsessed with his epic poems, and Yiloxeto the potential housewife owned a multi-national corporation. Talipoketxa joined a rock-band for six decades. In a burst of exhilirating passion, Utlepacho left his wife for summer in London, or else his wife left him for autumn in Paris. Farming and city-peasantry were for the common folk, who were not so common anymore; everyone lived extraordinary lives - wind rushing through the hair, scarves flying from topless convertibles, generations of sexism crumbling, notions of 9-to-5 ho-hum dissolving - which means no one lived ordinary lives.
One day, the conquistadors found extraordinary ambition awake with the crow's feet of the correspondingly ordinary ruins.
-r
