Men ‘n Mirrors: Some of My Boyhood Encounters with Madness

Summary

Josh Hammond recounts his childhood experiences in the Amazon and America, detailing encounters with indigenous tribes, fugitive Nazis, and a Bolivian Revolution spy, all of which were influenced by his fundamentalist evangelical missionary father.

Abstract

The website content outlines a seven-part series of personal essays by Josh Hammond, detailing his unique and formative experiences as a child in the Amazon and his coming of age in America. These stories, excerpted from his unpublished memoir, include his involvement as a child in his father's missionary efforts to contact and convert the Ayoré tribe, shocking interactions with Nazi war criminals, and witnessing an attempted assassination linked to his father during the Bolivian Revolution. Hammond's father, a missionary in Concepción, Bolivia, is portrayed as a central figure and antagonist in these narratives, prioritizing his mission over his family and ultimately sending Hammond to America at the age of 12. The essays are adapted to fit Medium's format and are structured into shorter posts for easier reading.

Opinions

The author views his father as an antagonistic figure who prioritized his missionary work over family, leading to a sense of abandonment.
The stories convey a sense of wonder and danger in the author's interactions with the Ayoré tribe and his role as 'bait' in his father's conversion efforts.
There is a clear sense of betrayal and violation regarding the unexpected intrusion of Nazi officers into the family home.
The author seems to reflect on the historical and personal significance of the events he witnessed, particularly the attempted assassination during the Bolivian Revolution.
The essays suggest a complex relationship between the author and his past, with the reflections of the Ayoré people in mirrors serving as a metaphor for self-discovery and the confrontation with one's own identity.

Men ‘n Mirrors: Some of My Boyhood Encounters with Madness

Rob Mulholland “Mysterious Mirror Sculptures,” Pinterest

This is an introduction and overview to a seven-part series about four truly unique experiences that defined my life growing up in the Amazon and coming of age in America. These true stories are excerpts from the opening chapters of an unpublished memoir that I (Josh Hammond, creator and editor of At The Break Of Day on Medium) have authored. They have been tailored to fit Medium’s format and to be a shorter, more manageable read. The first two and the fourth stories are presented in two parts each to facilitate easier reading.

The stories describe my childhood encounters between the ages of six and eleven with the chiefs of an indigenous (“savage”) tribe of the Bolivian Amazon, the Ayoré; a shocking in-house encounter with two Nazis officers on the run; and the attempted assassination of a Bolivian Revolution spy on our doorstep that implicated my father in some sort of conspiracy beyond a kid’s understanding.

My father, a petulant parent, is the antagonist in all these stories. He was a fundamentalist evangelical missionary in Concepción, Bolivia, where I was born and raised for the first 12 years of my life. He chose mission over family, and I was then flown off to America, on my own, to “finish” my education, essentially orphaned and left to my own devices.

If you’ve seen the movie The Mission, starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons as Jesuits trying to protect their 18th century mission from the marauding Portuguese, you will see a tribe that was closely related to the one I encountered in some of these stories.

These same Jesuit missionaries established seven permanent churches in the northeastern part of Bolivia that are still functioning to this day. Our village of Concepción was one of them, about 250 farmers, traders, army and essential public service workers, and Catholic priests and nuns to support the cathedral’s services. The only White family within 250 miles was mine, with two parents and two brothers, and our only transportation a Patton-like Willys Jeep — a taxi, ambulance, lead float in local parades, and jungle transport. The city now has paved streets, cars, electricity, and indoor plumbing, but not much else has changed.

Father, William Hammond,in front of the family home on the plaza in Concepción, Bolivia

Part 1: Bait — The story of how my father used me in his gambit to contact, clothe, and convert the previously uncontacted native tribe of the Ayoré, pictured below. As they tracked our approach and lurked in waiting on the edge of the Amazon, I was sent out as the bait.

Ayoré Indians & Sons from the Amazon. Photograph by my father, William Hammond

Part 2: Strangers in Our House — The story of how two uninvited “guests,” Nazi officers on the run from their crimes against humanity during WW2, broke into our house to steal my father’s home-made maps of the Amazon jungles and routes to the mica and silver mines of Bolivia. One was most likely Klaus Barbie, the infamous Butcher of Lyon, who changed his name when he came to Bolivia on the Vatican-backed Ratline, fueled by mendacity, money, and murder. A next-door neighbor would grow up to be the dictator of Bolivia and hire Barbie to reprise his role as a butcher of men.

Left, Klaus Barbie as head of Gestapo in Lyon, France. Barbie changed his name to Klaus Altman when he came to Bolivia. Right, Barbie at the time of his arrest. Infobae.com

Part 3: The Coffin Man — On Day 1 of the 1950s Bolivian Revolution, a spy on the run was shot in the doorway of our house right on the strategically-placed corner of the plaza. My father “happened” to be there and caught him before he fell, creating the appearance that the assassin, shooting from across the plaza, had missed his target. Like Luke in the 1985 movie Witness, with Harrison Ford in Philadelphia and the Amish country of Pennsylvania, I was a witness to this dramatic opening to the Bolivian Revolution in my village, in the front yard of our house.

The imagined coffin, WWImages

Part 4: Men ‘n Mirrors — Several years after the gambit move with the Ayoré in Part 1, I tagged along for a second visit to a much tamer Ayoré tribe. Still naked and not yet converted, they now were more traders than hunters, more curious than calculating, more cunning than confrontational. This is a story of what happens when a native tribe in the Amazon sees themselves in a mirror for the first time. The reflections turn out to be not what you’d think.

“Memory 1986,” created by Rob Mulholland

As mentioned at the beginning, these stories will be split into seven shorter posts for the convenience of readers, spread out over eight weeks, as follows:

· Bait, Part 1 · Bait, Part 2