Duende • noun • (dwen-de)
Definition - ghost, spirit, soul, magic
Origin - Spanish
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When discussing and analyzing language and culture, it is important to recognize the distinction between words that describe physical, tactile objects that we can touch, and metaphysical objects whose manifestations we may be able to visualize but cannot physically touch.
The distinction between physical and metaphysical language is incredibly important because the words we use to describe objects we cannot touch often have a story behind them that can help educate us about the ideas, beliefs, and philosophies that guide a people and their culture. Additionally, these metaphysical words often greatly influence the physical words used by a people.
I first started a concerted effort to explore these metaphysical words as I worked to more fully understand the impact of ethnocide and the meaning of culture. When a word means the destruction of a people’s culture while keeping the people, you must have a clear understanding of what constitutes “culture” to fully understand the impact of ethnocide.
Culture requires an attachment to place because a people’s culture consists of the many things a people must cultivate to hopefully live in a specific place in perpetuity. Culture will consist of a people’s language plus physical items such as food, clothing, and housing; but it also includes metaphysical attributes including traditions, belief structures, and philosophies.
In destroying a culture while keeping the people, one must destroy both the physical and the metaphysical. So in order to create culture, we must cultivate both physical and metaphysical culture, and a great way to embark on this journey of cultural cultivation is by embracing the language that different cultures use to express their metaphysical culture.
Duende is one of these words.
Duende, Geist, and Place
In The Crime Without a Name: Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America I devote a decent amount of time to the German word Geist. It is a word used to describe a metaphysical aspect of life, and as a result, the word does not directly translate into English. The complexity of translation is where the story resides.
Geist means “ghost, spirit, soul, mind, and intelligence.” When you die you become a Geist and as you live, your Geist also defines you. Your spirit shapes how you interact with the world, so it would also make sense to consider your Geist to be your intelligence too.
In English, we often talk about a person’s spirit or soul, but these words are primarily used to describe someone’s existence in an afterlife when they would also be a ghost, and we rarely, if ever, equate one’s soul to also be their intelligence.
American culture and American English value industrialization, efficiency, and productivity; so our understanding of intelligence also fits within these confines. One’s intelligence or IQ is something that can be easily quantifiable and “proven” via an exam. America has a spiritless understanding of intelligence, and Geist reminds us that much of what makes us unique and intelligent resides within our unquantifiable spirit.
By understanding Geist, it is easier for English-speakers to appreciate each person’s unique, soulful intelligence and cultivate cultural practices to grow our Geist.
Duende is another word that can have a similar impact because this Spanish interpretation of spirit and ghost also extends to magic.
One’s spirit is also their magic, and as with Geist, duende can also describe a collective spirit. A culture can have magic, and often this magic is expressed through their unique dance traditions.
The feeling of being engulfed by the spirit or magic of a dance performance is often described as duende. The dancers have duende, but so does the audience who can feel the spirit of the performance.
Duende and Geist are very similar words, and I wonder how the Spanish and Germans had a slightly different relationship with this metaphysical aspect of life. Obviously, it is impossible to determine the precise answer, but I theorize that these differing perspectives have everything to do with the environment in which they live.
Spain’s warmer climate makes it much easier for people to spend most of their time outdoors and socializing. Their environment encourages them to connect with nature and their fellow people, and unsurprisingly dancing and engaging in long meals outdoors have been a staple of Spanish culture for centuries.
Joyfully, communing with your community, especially with some alcoholic beverages, will organically create dancing, and as people become more open and free they will become empowered to let their spirit show. And when that occurs we have the opportunity to create something magical. That is duende.
Germany’s weather cultivates a different type of cultural expression, but Germany’s belief in magic still has a profound attachment to place. Look at nearly any Grimm’s Brothers fairy tale, and magic often resides within the forest. Germany is known for its forests, and within the mysteries of the forest magic can be found.
Spirit, Soul, and the Absence of Place
When people talk about the United States of America, it becomes obvious that people are attached to the idea of “America” and less so the physical place that is America.
We believe in the idea that America is “free” and “safe,” and this belief inclines us to still profess the greatness of this nation as gun violence and terror continue to consume the nation, making all of us less free and safe.
Americans have been indoctrinated in the idea of America, or American Exceptionalism, and we remain tragically unaware how this belief crushes our soul, spirit, intelligence, and magic.
Through the transatlantic slave trade, ethnocidal colonizers aspired to crush and destroy the culture and spirit of African people with the goal of creating a spiritless labor force that could enrich colonizers and white people in perpetuity. By creating a status quo where the implementer of ethnocide, the ethnocider, exists to crush the soul of their fellow human, the ethnocider also destroys their own soul, and creates a soulless way of life.
(I define the crushing of spirit that comes with ethnocide as Geistmord.)
Colonizers also intended for this spiritless mass of African people to systematically reshape the land of the Americas so that it could generate profit for colonizers and their descendants instead of allowing for the land to nurture the entire community. The land became a commodity instead of a source for nourishment, and perpetual division became the norm.
Ethnocide in the Americas aspired to sever humanity’s connection to the land; crush the spirit, soul, mind, intelligence, magic, and culture of its people; and maintain the social and racial divisions that fuel ethnocide.
Without an attachment to place and a shared culture, it is almost impossible to cultivate a nourishing spirit and environment, and the United States is currently confronting this harsh and deadly reality.
Yet this reality should not result in a hopelessness regardless of the enormity of the problem. By recognizing the problem, we can then empower ourselves to articulate the solution. In doing so, we will strengthen our spirit, Geist, and duende. If you aspire to transcend today’s limitations, our unquantifiable, qualitative soul, intelligence, and magic can lead the way.