Trochilidae is the name he's given in Latin. Colibri is one name in Spanish, picaflor another. In Navajo, the bird is called Da-hi-tu-hi and his name means "he who brings life". Many Native American tribes consider the hummingbird to be a healer. All throughout North, Central and South America each region has it's own name for this mythical bird that means many things to many people.
Like the land, he is one bird, the quintessential American bird. If the bald eagle is the bird for The United States, The hummingbird is the bird for the whole American continent. Found no where other than here, "inhabiting from the lakes of Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego", the Southern most city in the world in Argentina.(Monroy 2018) Between each of the borders that are drawn on a map this bird roams freely, migrates and inspires.
Like the land, he is one bird, the quintessential American bird. If the bald eagle is the bird for The United States, The hummingbird is the bird for the whole American continent. Found no where other than here, "inhabiting from the lakes of Alaska down to Tierra del Fuego", the Southern most city in the world in Argentina.(Monroy 2018) Between each of the borders that are drawn on a map this bird roams freely, migrates and inspires.
In Argentina Gaucho singers called Payadores, armed with their guitars, sing their history around campfires and in bars. In the case of "Me dicen el Picaflor" or "They call me a Hummingbird", the well known song, still taunted by my mother in law, gives a warning to young girls to beware of hummingbirds. In it lives the Argentine tradition of doublespeak. The lyrics speak not of a man being called a bird, but of being a dangerous womanizing predator:
"They call me a hummingbird, because I go from branch to branch
Looking for a lost love, from the night until the morning.
And I am forgotten as I sing my fame"
In another American Folklore tradition from the ancient Mayans It is named for the sound it makes as it wizzes by your ear. "x ts'unu'um" The legend maintains the sacredness of these birds as one of the gods most special creatures.
"The gods created all things on the earth. And in doing so, every animal, every tree, every rock, they gave a job. But when they had finished, they realized that there was no one charged with taking their wishes and thoughts from one place to another.
As now they had not neither mud nor corn to make another animal, they took a stone of jade and with her carved a small arrow. When she was ready, they breathed on her and the small arrow went flying. Now she was not a simple arrow, now she had life, the gods had created x tsu'unu'um" (Cordova)
It is said by others "If one day you see a Hummingbird, it is because someone is thinking of you and there is a reason why a hummingbird crossed your path".
My Argentine husband always insists that the Americas are one continent. No matter that here, an American is someone from the United States, America is a continent with one range of mountains and tectonic plates that span from Canada to Patagonia and beyond. He is American. Our Mexican Neighbors are American. We share this bird, this land and the traditions that come with it.
As I think on these things and begin to create our farm and life, a sanctuary for the feathered arrows who tantalize the air around them, I begin to give meaning to them. I didn't call them but they were here. Now when I watch them hover outside my window I'll know that someone is thinking of me. I have stories to pass on to my kids as we sing around a fire and teach them of their heritage as we make this Holding Post our sanctuary.
Citations:
Blue Panther. Gift to the Hummingbird. Manataka America Indian Council. www.manataka.org/page1088.html accessed November 6, 2018.
Cordova, Rafael. La Leyanda del colibri. Leyenda Maya. Como en el tianguis. www.rafflesc.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/la-leyenda-maya-del-colibri/. Accessed November 6, 2018.
La Yunta. Me Dicen El Picaflor / El Corajudo / Nostalgias Tucumanas / Al Jardín de la República. El Teatro Mercedes Sosa de Tucumán (Mayo, 2016). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDHOClj8VIA Accessed November 6, 2018.
Monroy, Alonso. La Leyenda del colibri. Camino Ligero. www.excelsior.com.mx/blog/camino-ligero/la-leyenda-del-colibri/1243253. Accessed November 6, 2018.
