In the Neruda reading this week, Machu Picchu represents not only physical grandeur and spectacle but also spiritual resiliance and cultural memory. For Neruda, Machu Picchu embodies the enduring spirit of the Inca civilization despite centuries of colonization and it’s aftermath. I found the following excerpt to be especially intriguing…. 

“Rise up in birth with me, my brother. Give me your hand out of the deep zone of your wide-spread sorrow. You will not return from the bedrock depths. You will not return from subterranean time. It will not return, your hardened voice. They will not return, your pierced eyes….”

  Neruda’s invocation directly addresses the lost Inca civilization, urging it to “rise up” and be metaphorically reborn. This call for rebirth is rooted in the notion of reclaiming cultural memory, the collective consciousness and historical legacy of the Inca people that have been obscured or suppressed over centuries of colonization and western ideas of “progress”. Neruda is urging a nebulous Inca civilization to awaken from the depths of a supposed historical oblivion. This section suggests a cyclical view of history, where cultural “rebirth” and renewal are possible through reconnecting with ancestral wisdom and reclaiming what it means to be Indigenous. This challenges linear western notions of progress and invites reflection on the cyclical nature of human experience. For Neruda, Machu Picchu is not merely a historical site but a living repository of Indigenous cultural memory, a tangible link to the past that invites contemporary generations to reconnect with ancestral roots and reclaim their indigeneity. Neruda alludes to the importance of remembering and reawakening dormant aspects of cultural identity that have been marginalized or erased through colonialism or otherwise. Neruda acknowledges the irreversibility of loss and the passage of time in the lines, “You will not return from the bedrock depths. You will not return from subterranean time.” I see this as a philosophical contemplation on the transience of life and the impermanence of human achievements, inviting reflection on the fragility of cultural memory. The lines “It will not return, your hardened voice. They will not return, your pierced eyes” speak on historical trauma and cultural suppression. They speak to the silencing of Indigenous voices and the erasure of Indigenous worldviews. I think that this whole quote raises philosophical questions about the ethics of representing indigenous memory, and historical justice. How can contemporary societies honour and restore these nearly lost perspectives?