The Isle Of Sentiment
by Jack Boulware
The Isle of
Sentiment
Adventure, love, betrayal, a broken heart. Sounds like a bad soap
opera. But in reality, it was just the life of Fermín Mundaca de
Marechaja, the legendary pirate of the rural yet enchanting Isla
Mujeres.
Photographs by Steve Giralt
Photos don't do the Mexican
Caribbean waters justice. Up close, the color seems almost bluer
than blue. During my 40-minute ferry ride from
Cancun to Isla
Mujeres, a small island about nine miles off the
Yucatan coast, one
of the crew members materializes with a tray: "Two beers, yes?" I'm
on the trail of Fermín Mundaca de Marechaja, the region's most
famous pirate. Drinking in the morning does seem appropriate. Okay,
why not?
Bob Marley tunes blast out from unseen speakers. Normally, I'd be
suspicious of any pirate who sang along with "No Woman No Cry." But
it's the perfect theme for Mundaca, because it was here on this
island that a local Mayan girl broke his heart.
Unlike most pirates, who gleefully pillaged their way across the
oceans - collecting diseases and watching their teeth fall out from
scurvy - Mundaca was a sensitive swashbuckler. In a very
unpiratelike moment of weakness, he allowed himself to fall in
love. And then she dumped him for a local guy.
It's an incredible tale of passion and rejection, like one of those
Mexican soap operas on Telemundo. I can imagine Mundaca standing
there in his pirate gear, pleading for her love, his eyes watery
and sad. She turns her back defiantly, her hair blowing up from an
unseen wind. A door opens; there stands a handsome Mayan fisherman.
She runs to his arms, and we see Mundaca trembling, a single tear
trickling down his craggy pirate face. Has this been done
already?
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