Grave of Albert Vojtěch Frič in Prague

1944 

Alberto Vojtěch Frič – botanist, cactus collector, ethnographer, writer and private researcher - travelled all over South America, where he spent almost twelve years among the native tribes, about whom he gathered much knowledge. He also acquired a considerable number of ethnographic works, now housed in museums around the world. His ethnological work has not yet been properly appreciated because he published it mostly in Czech. He devoted the last decades of his life to experiments in plant physiology and hybridization.

 

A popular experiment of his was when in 1908 he brought to Prague a member of the Paraguayan Chamacoco Indian tribe - Cherwuish - suffering from an unknown type of parasitosis. They spent a year in Bohemia, Cherwuish was cured and Frič then used the same treatment to cure the other members of the tribe, plagued by the same deadly disease. Frič was aware of the cultural harm caused to the Indian by being in a different environment; he had gone through the same experience. He later described his memories and feelings from this adventure in a series for the magazine Colourful Week (1943), (published in book form, including unpublished parts, only 60 years later under the title Cherwuish or from Pacheco to Pacheco with a detour through Central Europe). Czech filmmakers followed the book`s trail in 2000 and found not only Cherwuish`s witnesses, but especially, quite unexpectedly, the almost 100-year-old daughter of Alberto Vojtěch Frič and her extended family (1905-2009). The Paraguayan descendants of Frič are in contact with his Czech family who founded the Checomacoco association (i.e. “Chamacocos with Czech blood”) and are successfully trying to improve the living conditions of their Indian relatives. Frič`s eldest grandson, Rodolfo Ferreira Fric (born 1942), visited his grandfather`s grave in the forest part of the Motol Cemetery in Prague in 2012 on the occasion of the presentation of his memoir (The Indian Book).

 

References

Crkal, K.: Lovec kaktusů. Praha 1983, s. 432.

Deyl, V.: Lovec života. Životní osudy A. V. Friče, cestovatele, národopisce, kaktusáře, spisovatele a tvůrce nových rostlin. Praha 1954, s. 209.

Frič, A., V.: O kaktech a jejich narkotických účincích. Praha 2015, s. 117.

Frič, A., V.: Indiáni Jižní Ameriky. Praha 1977, s. 252.

Frič, A., V.: Čerwuiš aneb z Pacheka do Pacheka oklikou přes střední Evropu. 3., upravené vydání. Praha 2011, s. 233.

Frič, A., V.; Frič Ferreira R.: Indiánská knížka. Praha 2012, s. 208. 

Fričová, Y.: Sdružení CHECOMACOCO. URL: https://www.checomacoco.cz/home/ [30. 8. 2021].

 

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