Friday, April 06, 2018

Spaniard raised by wolves disappointed with human life...

They laugh at me because I don’t know about politics or soccer

Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja was once the “Mowgli” of Spain’s Sierra Morena mountain range, but life has changed a lot since then. Now the 72-year-old lives in a small, cold house in the village of Rante, in the Galician province of Ourense. This past winter has been hard for him, and a violent cough interrupts him often as he speaks.

His last happy memories were of his childhood with the wolves. The wolf cubs accepted him as a brother, while the she-wolf who fed him taught him the meaning of motherhood. He slept in a cave alongside bats, snakes and deer, listening to them as they exchanged squawks and howls. Together they taught him how to survive. Thanks to them, Rodríguez learned which berries and mushrooms were safe to eat.

Today, the former wolf boy, who was 19 when he was discovered by the Civil Guard and ripped away from his natural home, struggles with the coldness of the human world. It’s something that didn’t affect him so much when he was running around barefoot and half-naked with the wolves. “I only wrapped my feet up when they hurt because of the snow,” he remembers. “I had such big calluses on my feet that kicking a rock was like kicking a ball.”

After he was captured, Rodríguez’s world fell apart and he has never been able to fully recover. He’s been cheated and abused, exploited by bosses in the hospitality and construction industries, and never fully reintegrated to the human tribe. But at least his neighbors in Rante accept him as “one of them.” And now, the environmental group Amig@s das Arbores is raising money to insulate Rodríguez’s house and buy him a small pellet boiler – things that his meager pension cannot cover. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Uttar Pradesh police rescue ‘Mowgli girl’ brought up by monkeys...
  2. Doctor who disappeared 20 years ago found living as a hermit in...
  3. ‘Altay Mowgli’: Feral man spent entire life in mud hut in Siberian...
  4. Mystery of Berlin 'forest boy' Ray solved!!!
  5. Cambodia's "jungle woman" wants to return to the wild...
  6. A "wild" child found in Siberia...
  7. "Jungle Laxmi" comes home after 22 years...

No comments:

Post a Comment