Clara Santi Grefa, "Hearing the Jilucu (Grand Potoo bird) Makes Me Sad."

Abstract

"Llakichina"- (dar pena, to cause sadness, love, empathy) is the stated purpose of many Amazonian songs and stories. "Llakichina" is also the effect that hearing the voices of birds and animals often produces in traditional older people Here a Pastaza Kichwa woman shows the vine through which Mother Jilucu tried to follow her brother/husband the moon into the sky before she fell and turned into the bird that cries when she sees the moon.