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My South American Life

niamh

niamh

Senior Registered
I've been promising a "certain someone" in this community for YEARS that I'd one day post this, and today I'm finally getting around to it. :thumbsup: Surprise!

I had a life back in the days when Europeans were colonizing the New World. I lived somewhere in South or Central America (pretty sure it was not on one of the islands). The place were I lived was on the coast. There was a harbor and a little village, and an outpost there for soldiers. This was on a narrow strip of flat land along the beach. Behind that there were tall cliffs and a few large houses. Behind them was rainforest. Or jungle. Or maybe just a whole lot of trees. I'm not really sure what you'd call it.

The biggest house up on the cliff was owned by the man who was in charge of the area. He was a soldier but also like a governor of sorts. My mother was his cook and the boss of the kitchen staff. I was her only child and can't recall a father.

My mother had originally worked for this gentleman in the old country (Spain, I suppose, although it might have been Portugal). After he'd been in the colonies for a while, he sent for her to come and work for him there. I remember going there on a ship. Specifically, I remember the ship approaching the harbor and how nervous and excited I felt about going to live in a new place.

I was about 8 or 10, I think, when we arrived. At first, I helped a little bit in the kitchen but didn't have any sort of real job. My mother died after a couple of years, and I was taken on as a full-time servant in the house. I know that when I was about 16 or so, one of my tasks was to scrub the floor of the big stone veranda around the front of the house. I liked that job a lot, because I could look down at the village and see what was going on there, and I could see people coming and going from the house. I could also eavesdrop on conversations taking place inside the house when I cleaned near the windows.

I had a love affair with one the young officers stationed in the village. I knew it would never go anywhere, as he was of a "better" class. But we had fun and I was always glad to see him when he came up to the house to see the governor.

One day, I was out scrubbing the veranda, and he came riding up. He was very worried about something and in a huge hurry to see the governor. I listened under the window where they were talking and heard that our little outpost was about to be attacked.

I guess we were attacked, and I think I must have been killed, because I have no memories after that time. (Or maybe I just don't remember them yet.)

It seemed to be a short life, and a hard one in some ways, but I think that it was a happy life, and I do look back on it fondly.
 
No, and I probably never will. The objects, clothing, buildings, etc., that I can remember don't give me any clues that would narrow down the time frame. As far as location - I just have a gut feeling that we were a Spanish colony. That leaves a lot of possibilities. I have a sense of there being a lot of unexplored territory inland, which is why I don't think we were on an island.


I don't remember who was going to attack us, either, which would have been a good clue.


Oh, well.
 
Haha, Karoliina, I bet you were astonished when I finally stopped being a total slacker. :tongue:


To answer your question:


How do I feel about Chile? I don't, really.


I've heard people talk about having an attraction or aversion to their past life locales, but I've never experienced that.


I think that this was a place that had monkeys, though. I have no idea if there are monkeys in Chile. I am actually quite ignorant about South America in general.


What made you think to ask that?
 
Yes there are monkeys in Chile, but I'm not sure what kind and in which parts of Chile. Unfortunately I don't have time for any research now, as we're going away for the weekend soon, and I haven't packed the bags yet. But if you don't mind, I'm happy to look into it next week. :thumbsup:


I asked about Chile, because I believe lived there at the time, being also a Spaniard, and it wouldn't surprise me many things considered, if our paths crossed there. But of course it's only speculation for now. :D


Have a good weekend, and if you're interested, you could maybe google for images of Chilean coast or something to see if it looks similar (although it's a LONG coast)? I'll "see" you next week!


Karoliina
 
Oh, and do you remember what the governor looked like? If you do, I'd like to hear your description and maybe show you some pictures. ;)


Karoliina
 
Interesting. Our paths do seem to be crossing, or almost crossing, all the time, don't they?


No, I don't remember what the governor looked like.


Thank you for offering to share some research. I could have started researching this myself a long time ago, but I held off for so long because . . . you know me, I'm always worried about influence and creating false memories. However, it's been so long since I had any "new" memories from this lifetime, I probably am at the point where I need to start looking for triggers.


I'd definitely be interested in hearing about your SA life when you have time.


Have a safe trip!


Niamh.
 
Niamh: Thanks for sharing this memory. If you do decide to do some research to try to discover where and when this life took place, I might offer a couple of clues that might be helpful. Do you memories of the other people in the village include slaves from Africa? If so, this probably places you in the Carribean (not necessarily on an island but also on the coast of northern South America (present day Colombia or Venezula - or Brazil if you were Portugese). (As to Islands, I would also say that some Islands are quite large with large tracks of interior land to explore - especially Cuba). It is also my experience that many homes of Governors (even small town leaders) have been preserved and are now museums. As you worked in such a house, it is possible that the exact home is still around and photos are available. Even if the exact home is not around, looking at some of them, could give you ideas as to architectual styles that where popular at different periods and you might be able to narrow down the time frame that way. Your descriptions seem to indicate that the place was tropical, and for this reason I tend to think that either Central America or the northern parts of South America would be good places to begin thinking about.
 
Niamh,


At this point it would be cool if you could remember something about the governor. I don't want to lead you before that. :) But I think it might be a good idea to take a look at some pictures of the Chilean coast. Yes, it's a long coast, but I believe there are forests (and cliffs) mostly along "mid-coast". Try googling and see what you find - and if it looks familiar.


I could be way off with this, so at first I'd like you to tell me if it looks possible you were in Chile, and then it would help enormously, if you could remember the governor.


Let me know how it goes! As always, you can also email me. :thumbsup:


Karoliina
 
Alexnovo, Karoliina, thank you both for your offers of help. Here are some off-the-top-of-my-head answers to your questions.


I don't remember any Africans. Does that mean there were none, or just that I don't remember them? Your guess is as good as mine, LOL.


The northern South American area is the one I would pick if I had to make a total guess. Why? No reason I can put my finger on. Just - when I picture a map of South America in my head, that area comes to me clearly and easily, while I have to actually sit and think about the location of countries like Argentina, Uruguay, etc.


Alexnova, I didn't realize so many colonial buildings had been preserved. Thanks for the tip! I will look at some photos of them when time permits.


I'm sorry, Karoliina, I just don't remember much at all about the governor. I think his main importance in my life was simply as my employer and the boss of the little settlement. I don't think I had much contact with him. And, remember, I'm not really sure he was a governor. He might have been the commanding officer of the garrison, or even just a wealthy settler. Governor is just a handy word I assigned to him because he seemed to be a man who was in charge of a lot of important things. And, the young officer did seem to act as if the "governor" would be the person making decisions about what to do during the attack.


Here is every single thing I can think of that I remember about the governor:


He didn't have a wife or children around. He may have been unmarried, or maybe he left his wife in the old country. And he seemed like a kind master. I wasn't afraid of him or anything. And I remember he had a big booming laugh that I could hear sometimes from other parts of the house. He had a study in the house with a big wooden desk and a map on the wall. (I can't picture the map clearly enough to recognize it.) Soldiers came to talk to him a lot (and as I said, he seemed to make important decisions about what they should be doing). I'd guess he was in his late forties or early fifties. He liked my mother's cooking and was displeased with the native servants he'd tried as cooks.


I don't remember what he looked like, unfortunately. If I try to picture a man with white hair, that seems wrong. If I try to picture a fat man, that seems wrong, too. Other than that, who knows.


Alright, on to the good stuff. Coastline pictures. I have only a few minutes left to fool around online, so these are quick impressions of the first images I found when I Googled. (I will do a more careful study later.)


This one is in Colombia.


Too flat.


Nicarauga.


Still too flat. Our cliff/mountains were higher and rockier and not as pointy. We had a horseshoe shaped harbor like that, though. Only slightly more irregular, and with a little wooden pier.


Peru.


This is more like the shape of our cliffs, but we had a lot of trees on top of ours. And these are still too low.


Colombia.


Wrong shape for the cliffs, and not green enough, but they are about the right height. And the little village at the bottom, that's sort of how ours was tucked in between the water and the hills.


I found some other pictures of Colombia that looked pretty close, but they all had naked tourists in them, so never mind.


Here's one of Chile that's pretty close. We had more beach, but the hills are about right and the trees are green enough. We had more rock showing around the bottoms of the hills, though.


Well, that's it for now. These were supposed to be quick impressions and I'm getting way too . . . um . . . non-quick. :eek:


Let me know if y'all had any interesting thoughts.


--Niamh.
 
I would share my memories of the time and place, but it's a little complicated. I'll tell you more in an email, I promise. But you could take a look at Chilean places like Concepción, Arauco, Tucapel, Purén, Imperial and Valdivia. There is a place called Corral Bay (not sure what it is in Spanish) in the Valdivia region that might be of interest to you.


Of course pictures one finds online are modern, and the landscape might have been very different centuries ago. Especially when it comes to buildings and such, of course.


I'm not sure, but this could once again be a case of our paths almost crossing, but not quite. :D


Karoliina
 
Hi again, Niamh -hmm I see I have misspelled your name before- sorry!


Thanks for sharing! I'm so curious to read more. Seems Karoliina hit the nail on the head - Chile just might be it?
 
Don't worry about it, W.A., my name is very hard to spell. :laugh:


Anyway, thank you for your interest. I doubt that I'll have anything else to post about this lifetime, though. The memories are few and far between, and I think I've just about covered them.


I do plan to spend some time over the next few weeks doing a little research, though, so maybe something will come up. One never knows!
 
niamh


Do you remember the vegetation around the area you lived?


If it is tropical, Chile would not be the place.


If the village was in the coast, can you remember if sun set at the mountains or at the ocean?
 
Welcome to the forum, Oscar. :)


I think there are tropical rainforests in Chile. Temperate, but still tropical. :thumbsup:


Karoliina
 
Hi Karoliina


Thanks


The Chilean landscape is very varied and it always includes desert zones in the north of the country, mountainous covered with snow zones and steppes in the southern zone.


I don´t know if there are tropical forest in Chile.


But I think there is not.


However, knowing from where the sun set or rise, would be a good indication of which part of the continent, Niamh lived
 
Hi everyone! im new here.


I was overlooking old posts from fist to last and i found this one, and i thought maybe i can be of some help, cause i live in SA, Uruguay.


So my point is, niamh, that maybe you lived here in Uruguay or maybe argentina. We were mainly colonized (spelling?) by the Spanish, and we have two major cities that are on the coast and are very old, these are montevideo the capital, and colonia.


It also could be Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, wich is also very old city, also colonized by spanish people.


However the info you gave us bounds me to think about montevideo, particularly bc we have a "cliff", that is a very particular image of montevideo. in fact, the city owes the name to this cliff, ("Monte"). We now call it "Cerro".


On that cliff there has, since the spanish colonization, been a fort, that served as a holding place against foreign colonization. So, around that time of frequent wars, the general that ruled that fortress probably owned the whole town, too.


Just throwing my two cents, but if you got questions about the region i could help. Thanks for reading.


Jei_Pi.
 
Jei_Pi said:
Hi everyone! im new here.
Click to expand...
Hi Jei_Pi, and welcome to the Forum.


Please be sure to explore all the areas of the Forum, and take an opportunity to start a new thread introducing yourself. Also, thank you very much for offering your help on this thread.
 
.....and a warm welcome from me too Jei_Pi :)


I just wanted to add that niamh hasn't visited the forum for over a year, so please don't be offended if she doesn't see or respond to your post.


But like Nightrain said, please feel free to join in with any of the discussions, or start one of your own.


Chris :)
 
First of all, thank you chris and nightrain for your warm welcomes, im very glad to have found this forum, reincarnation is something that since i learned (or relearned) about it a year ago or so, ive been very interested in.


Im in a quest for learning about my PL as well.


Im still wandering about the forum and taking a look at the different topics. Excuse me if my english is not that good, because where i live we speak spanish. On that matter, feel free to correct me if i spell something wrong, too.


Second, yeah, i know she left this post a while ago, but i thought it would the post be even older than this, like 2004 or something, but then i see is 2009, its not that long, and maybe shes still around.


Anyway, thanks for the replies, ill keep coming around and maybe someday i make a post about my PL if i find more about it. :thumbsup:


Now back to niamh, lol, i got a little too talkative here lol :o
 
Hello Jet Pi. There are other members of the forum that have a language other than English as their first language as well, but your English is fine. You have nothing to worry about. :thumbsup:


I hope you enjoy the forum and feel free to ask any questions that come up.
 
Thanks truthseeker, yeah, ive seen there are other non-english speakers here too.


No problem, thanks. :thumbsup:
 
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