Dream trek inspired by Bolivar repeated

A group of Venezuelans are duplicating an overland trip by motor vehicle from Machiques, Venezuela to Detroit, Michigan that was first made 51 years ago by three intrepid trekkers inspired by Simon Bolivar's unionist dreams. Standing below the Christ statue at El Picacho (above Tegucigalpa) are modern-day trekkers Hernando Morán, Randolfo Blanco and Lourdes Marquez. (Photo by Jorge Flores McClellan.)

One night in the early 1920s, a boy somewhere in South America woke up to a vision: to unite all three Americas. Probably something he had heard in school the day before had spurred his imagination, and visions of Simon Bolivar's historical unionist quest became a reality in his mind. After that, he often told his friends about this and talked about making a voyage. This vision lingered and grew with him as he became a determined man.

In 1946, the world was now at peace and old ideals were rekindled. Words like liberty, democracy and fraternity had won again in a big way and were galvanizing the free world into a new order: the United Nations.

Jose Domingo "Mingo" Marquez, now 34, was ecstatic seeing his ideals very much alive in his native Venezuela that had just come out of a long, sinister dictatorship and decided to make a gesture, in his and his compatriots names, to demonstrate the world their exhilarated approval in an adventurous, exulting way. He gathered around his two best buddies, his cousin, Jose Joaquin Rojas, 29, and Regulo "Kuruvinda" Diaz, 40, and decided on a quixotic trip. All three were popular in their province of Zulia and renowned as rebels of thought. Mingo and Rojas had even distributed revolutionary, democratic pamphlets and formed the Democratic Action Party in Venezuela. Kuruvinda was a journalist, an artist and a man of the world, and as such, was invited on the trip.

The two cousins were mechanics and took on the job, within their poor limitations, of rebuilding their "Rocinante": an old, beat up 1928 Ford Model A which they baptized with the name "Fotingo." The heart and soul of their car, the motor, was in use to power a grain mill and had to be removed from its foundations. Other parts also had to be recovered and restored. Their knowledge about the car grew into admiration. The car was well designed, well built, and sturdy, qualities they could appreciate in this place and which in the end became symbolic and sentimental.

So this was their plan: they would unite the Americas with an unbroken line on the map from Machiques, Venezuela to Detroit, Michigan, the birthplace furnace of their loyal beast of burden.

Back in those days, Pan American only meant Bolivar's dream or an airline but not a highway, so when they let out the clutch on January 27, 1947, they were in for the adventure of three lifetimes.

Today, climbing treacherous mountain trails and fording flooded jungle rivers can deter anyone, even those who boast a four-wheel drive car. Notwithstanding, the three rode on their single-traction donut wheels. They took pictures of volcanoes erupting, camped where the beasts roared nearby, built 28 wooden bridges on the Atrato River between Colombia and Panama, saved a family that was stranded on a jungle road and even found themselves amidst what appeared to be a military coup d'etat.

On their way, they also found the rewards due to the brave: friendly welcomes in small lost towns and official receptions from the mighty and famous. They met dignitaries like Gaitan, Arnulfo Arias in Costa Rica, the Somozas in Nicaragua and Tiburcio Carias Andino, the Honduran dictator that for 16 years ruled the land of Francisco Morazan, the Central American Bolivar.

Kuruvinda presented Carias with the gift of a drawing he had done of the Cerro Negro Volcano in Nicaragua. Carias returned the gesture with 200 silver lempiras enabling them to journey on, as well as writing them a bon voyage letter.

In Mexico, they met stars of the golden age of cinema and music such as the composer Agustin Lara, the movie diva Maria Felix, the idol of Latin America Pedro Infante and the world renowned comedian and movie star Mario Moreno "Cantinflas."

Finally, on October 31, 1947, after nine months and four days navigating through the maze which is our continent, they rode into the Ford plant which exploded into applause and cheers from the proud workers, including Henry Ford III who was getting married that day. Henry Ford II had died when the voyagers were still in Colombia. This was the first automobile that had, without being unassembled, united by land the three latitudes of America. The three men realized their endeavor was not futile: they had discovered everywhere that their ideals were universal and deeply embedded.

September 10, 1998. The travellers have arrived on the Dia del Nino, a holiday for children. Their two new sports utility vehicles, full of stickers from friends and sponsors, pass through festive celebrations all along the road, seemingly as an unexpected welcoming gesture. It is a nice surprise for this, the new crew, specially after receiving prejudiced warnings in a neighboring country about coming to poor Honduras.

They are also surprised to discover Tegucigalpa is a huge, sprawling city and not a small village as they expected. As they answer the questions at a press conference, they ask questions themselves. How many people live here? How can there be so many T.V. stations?

The son of the pioneer Mingo, Victor Hugo Marquez, 48, lawyer, psychologist and graduate of the Machiques University, proudly displays the bulky photo and scrap book of the first voyage. Pictures, newspaper clippings and letters, including the one from Carías, are carefully handled and displayed for reporters as he repeats the stories his father told him with a twinkle in his eyes.

Lourdes Marquez, granddaughter of Mingo, 23, journalist graduated also from the Zulia University, whose thesis was a video about the original tour that was aired on Venezuelan T.V. and is the P.R. coordinator, says their main concern is to find witnesses and the places the original three knew in their nine-month odyssey. They are following the original trail as closely as they can, not an easy task in 10,000 miles. Still, they found Eloy Bonilla, 91, on the Panamanian-Costa Rican border, who 50 years ago, helped them with an ox team to cross a swamp.

The rest of the crew is composed of Hermano Moran, 36, the grandson of a Venezuelan man, Armando Romero, who was then living in Costa Rica and greatly aided the first three across that country. He has also had the dream of doing this trip since his grandfather told him the story when he was seven years old.

Idelmo Martinez, 59, mechanic, is a witness of the triumphant return to Machiques in 1948 and is now the transport coordinator. Randolfo Blanco, 23, also a graduate from the Zulia University, is a photographer for the La Verdad newspaper in Venezuela.

After the press conference, all of them, in a typical gesture of the Venezuelan people, expressed their sentiments with music. Victor Hugo, a poet by nature, had composed a song for the trip. He played the "Cuatro," a small guitar, while the rest played drums and sang the chorus. To our surprise, he improvised our names into the song and included their thanks to the Honduran people. Everyone present was then really aware of what this was all about: the Venezuelans sincerely maintain the ideals of Bolivar and will continue to pursue them. This bunch of spontaneous, friendly, fun loving people are worthy successors of the first Pan American ambassadors. They hope to do this trip every 10 years now and everyone present agreed on waiting for them next time.

Before riding into the horizon of this, our one continental country, they mentioned that many people take on similar challenges. Flying over or sailing across long distances solo is not unheard of, and the hardships can be awesome. However, to repeat the first voyage, someone would have to try, for example, the backroads of Africa from south to north, or crossing the Indian subcontinent in the middle of the monsoon season. Everything, of course, in a 1928 Ford.

For more information about the trekkers, see their web site http://ford.com.ve/machiques-detroit