FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

The drive to Zacatecas led us through arid valleys, highmountain plains, and dry lands. It was farm and cattle countrythat reminded me of sections of California, New Mexico,and Arizona. Along the route I noticedseveral areas where the sides of outlyinghills appeared to be terraced. Althoughthese terraces were overgrown, a distantview provided an interesting perspective:they did not follow the natural curvatureof other outlying hills. I told my father Ibelieved what we were seeing were theremnants of ancient civilizations. Theseterraces were possibly temples, cities, andpyramids now returning to the land’s naturaltopography. We return from whence wecame and I wondered what others wouldsee of us a thousand years from now.Much of the land here was partitionedinto sections by hand-laid walls of stone that hadbeen gathered from the arid ground. As we followed theundulating rise and fall of our route to Zacatecas on bothsides of the road, stone walls stretched for miles and miles. Itwas like a miniature version of the Great Wall of China. I amalways amazed at the effort man goes through in order tomark or claim the boundary of what he believes to be his.About twenty-five miles south ofZacatecas, to the right of the road, wepassed an abandoned building with a 20-foot silver eagle mounted on a pedestal.Remembering the eagle I had seen earlierthat day I quickly stopped and returnedto the building. I walked up to the figureand saw that it was made of tin andthat in the eagle’s beak was a snake. Thestatue looked exactly like the live eagleand snake my father and I had seen hoursbefore. Art truly does imitate life and Iwondered if there was any relationshipbetween the eagle I had seen earlier thatmorning and the statue before me. I rememberedthe war in Vietnam and the many patrols I ledthrough the jungle. During those times I felt connected tothe environment and my senses merged with life aroundme.26