that the palms of the black‘s hands were much lighter than the rest of their
bodies because only few centuries ago they walked around on all fours, like wild
animals, so their palms were‘nt exposed to the sun, which made the rest of
their bodies darker and darker. Ithought of this when Father Cristiano told
us after cathechism that we were absolutely hopeless, and that even the
blacks were better than us,and he went back to this things about their
hands being lighter, and said it was like thatbecause they always went about
their hands folded together, praying in secret. I thought this was so funny, this thing
of the black hands being so lighter, that you should see me now- I don‘t let go of
anyone, whoever they are, until they tell me why they think that the palms of the black
‘s hands are lighter.Dona Dores, for instance told me that God made theirhands lighter
like that so they they would‘nt dirty the food that they made for their masters, or
anything else that they were ordered to do that had to be kept quite clean.
Senhor Antunes, the Coca Cola man, who only comes to the village now and again
when all the cokes in the cantina have been sold, said to me that everything I had
been told was a lot of baloney. Of course I don‘t know if it was really,but he assured
me it was. After I said yes, all right, it was baloney, then he told me what he knew
about this things of the black‘s hands. It was like this:- Long ago, many years
ago, God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, many other saints,
all the angels were in heaven then, and some of thepeople who had died and
gone to Heaven- they all had a meeting and decided to make blacks. Do you know how?
They got hold of some clay and pressed it into some second- hand moulds. And to bake
them of the creatures, they took themto heavenly kilns. Because they were in a hurry and
there was no room next to the fire, they hung them in the chimneys.Smoke, smoke,
smoke- and there you have them, black as coals. And now do you want to know why
their hands stayed white? Because their hands are tied. When he had told me this
Senhor Antunes and the other men who were around us were very pleased and then
all burst out laughing. That very same day, Senhor Frias called me after Senhor
Antunes hadgone away, and told me everything I had heard from them there
had been just pack of lies. Really and truly, what heknew about the black‘s hands
was right, that God finished making men and told them to bathe in a lake in heaven.
Afterbathing the people were nice and white. The blacks, well, they were made very early
in the morning, and at this hour the water in the lake was very cold, so they only wet
the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet before dressing andcoming into
the world.But I read in a book that happened to mention it, that the black hands
are lighter like this because they spenttheir lives bent over, gathering the white
cottons of Virginia and I don‘t know where else. Of course, Dona
Estifaniadid‘nt agree when I told her this. According to her, it‘s only because their hands
became bleached with all that washing. Well, I don‘t know what to think about all these,
but the truth is that no matter how calloused and cracked they maybe, a black‘s
hand are always lighter than all the rest of him. And that‘s that! My mother
is the only one who must be rightabout this question of a black‘s hands being
lighter than the rest of his body. On the the day that we were talking aboutit, I was
telling her what I know about the question, and she just could‘nt stop laughing. What
I thought was strange wasthat she did‘nt tell me at once what she thought
about all this, and she only answered me when she was sure that I would
‘nt get tired of bothering her about it. And even then she was crying and
clutching herself around the stomach who had laugh so much that it was quite
unbearable. What she said was more or less this: ― God made Blacks because
they had to be. They had to be, my son. He thought they really had to be…Afterwards,
He regretted having made thembecause other men laughed at them and took them
off to their homes and put them to serve as slaves or not muchbetter. But
because He could‘nt make them all be white, for those who were used to seeing blacks
would complain, Hemade it so that the palms would exactly like the palms of other men.
And do you know why that was? Of course, youdon‘t know, and it‘s not surprising,
because many, many people don‘t know. Well, listen: It was to show that whatmendo is only
the work of men…That what men do is done by hands that are the same- hands of people
who, if they hadany sense, would know that before anything else they are men. He must be
thinking of this when He made the hands of the blacks be the same as the hands of
those men who thank God they are not black! After telling me all this, my mother kissed my hands.
As I ran off into the yard to play ball, I thought that I hadnever seen a person cry so
much when nobody had hit them.
That is a proof in this world we had an a simillarities in our society even if you are black
anything else what is your race in your life because in the eyes of god we are equal to everyone
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