Before the Spanish arrived in the Americas, hundreds of thousands of men and women lived in Argentina. The Quechua, Mapuche, Guaraní, Qom, Diaguitas, Selk’nam, Tehuelches, Wichis, Chiriguanos, and Pampas, among many others, inhabited the mountains, forests, plains, deserts, and coasts.
Each of these peoples had their own customs and ways of life, but they shared a tradition that still endures: telling stories around the fire.
The legends collected in this book are those told by the elders of each community. They passed them down to the younger generations so they would not be lost, and thus, by word of mouth and from generation to generation, they have been passed down for centuries. They speak of the sky, the Moon, fire, animals, plants, and human beings. They tell how things came to be, where the stars come from, and teach us to respect nature. They hold a wisdom born of this land and are the legacy of ancient voices. Now it is up to us to keep telling these stories.