Colombian memories.

• Author: Larson, William
• Position: UPFRONT - Letter to the editor

It is surprising how a person's memory can work. A few days ago in our living room I picked up our copy of Américas and began to page through it. When I came to Victor Englebert's "La vida en un hilo" (Life Hanging by a Thread), the picture below the title reached out and figuratively shouted at me: "You have been here!" Jonathan, the boy in the picture was starting down the cable. I was almost sure I recognized the green mountains beyond him. The article confirmed that the scene was near Guayabetal, Cundinamarca in Colombia, just off the major road that descends from the "Sabana de Bogota" to Villavicencio, at the edge of the Colombian llanos orientales.

In 1970, I met my wife, Elsa, in Fómeque, a town twenty miles upstream from Guayabetal. Fómeque overlooks the Rio Negro, which empties into the...