CHAPTER II
CHILDBIRTH
When Silvano came to his yard he stopped for a second, trying to listen; the door was closed, so he went around the back and jumping over the stone fence, he entered the house from behind.
While his eyes became accustomed to the half-light, he closed the door. He smelled the strong aroma of incense.
A new- born baby's cry pulled his attention toward a corner. In the light of a candle he could discern the mid-wife sitting on a stool. She was tying off the umbilical cord with of string of henequen threaded by hand.
He watched how she carefully cut the cord with a knife and cauterized it with the candle flame. His wife watched. She looked exhausted and pale but she had an expression of peace and satisfaction. As his vision cleared, he could discern the details better. His mother-in-law was picking up the clothes and utensils used in the delivery.
His questioning look had an answer from the mid-wife.
"It's a boy, Don Silvano; he was born a moment ago; he didn't give us much trouble".
Silvano Ek didn't answer. His thoughts flew to the memory of that fortuitous encounter, only a few hours before. He was thinking of how only fate had permitted him to see his son, the ts'uulo'ob could have killed him easily.
His name will be Jacinto in memory of that great chief that had led his grandfather during the war against the ts'uulo'ob, he and that group of his people whose descendants founded this town.
He remembered that only a few years before his father had fallen in the last of the barricades built six leagues from Chan Santa Cruz. He remembered his last words, when, with his guts torn up by the gunshots, he told him:
"It's useless to fight, Silvano, it's not like it was when we first fought with the ts'uulo'ob anymore. We can't stop these soldiers with their repeating rifles and cannons that blow our fox-holes apart. In a question of days, our sanctuary will fall. Chan Santa Cruz.- Get back to our town as quick as you can. Take your mother and little brothers and go south, beyond Rio Hondo. There are our people who didn't want to fight back before you were born.
They were right, we will never be able to beat the ts'uulo'ob.
When your grandfather died, in the last stronghold at X-ho'otsúuk, when l was just a boy- continued saying his father- he told me that same thing that I am telling you today. We are almost finished from so many years of fighting at a disadvantage. Escape to the south, you will leave this land which we have defended with the last drop of our blood; it hurts, but you will be able to live with dignity and be free".
Silvano remembered all that in the moment of the birth of his first born son and he remembered how his people had disbanded when his father died.
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