Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
B. Traven, German underground author, anarchist and writer of the Treasure of Sierra Madre, purposely obscured his origins to evade consequences from his revolutionary past in Germany and to stoke his literary mystery that hinged upon his words: “An author should have no other biography than his books.”
In search for legendary “City of the Monkey God,” explorers ignore indigenous residents and archaeologists who have worked in the region for years, and shamefully claim to find the “untouched ruins” of a “vanished” culture found in the remote Moskitia region eastern Honduras.
John Lloyd Stephens, who documented important Maya sites in Central America in 1839, described howler monkeys found at the ruins of Copán as “grave and solemn, almost emotionally wounded, as if officiating as the guardians of consecrated ground.” Today, in sites such as Tikal, they remain standing guard over the ruins, sharing space with hundreds of tourists.