The Maya

A snippit from Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father by Richard Rodriguez.

"So I ask my friend at Oxford what it means to him to be an Indian.

He hesitates. My friend has recently been taken up as amusing by a bunch of rich Pakistanis in London. But, facing me, he is vexed and in earnest. He describes a lonely search among his family for evidence of Indian-ness.. He thinks he has found it in his mother; watching his mother in her garden.

Does she plant corn by the light of the moon?

She seems to have some relationship with the earth, he says quietly.

So there it is. The mystical tie to nature. How else to think of the Indian except in terms of some druidical green thumb? No one says of an English matron in her rose garden that she is behaving like a Celt. Because the Indian has no history – that is, because history books are the province of descendants of Europeans--- the Indian seems only to belong in the party of the first part, the first chapter. So that is where the son expects to find his mother, Daughter of the Moon.”

Thank you Richard Rodriguez. I live with “Indians” and while the Q´eqchi´ might be more spiritual than I am, while some still believe that there are Mayans (they have heard their music) in the untouched parts of the forest, while corn might still be holy... these are all still parts of a culture that have come right along with everyone else into the 21^st century. The Mayans are now protestants who go out to villages to pray for those in times of trouble. The Mayans are now my host mom who cooks over a wood fire and would like to have a car so she didn´t have to walk so much. The Mayans are my cousin who is exchanging her huilpil and corte (clothes enforced long ago by Spanish occupants) for modern clothes from America made in Guatemala or SE Asia. If you still want to call the Q´eqchi´ Mayans, then the Mayans are cutting down there own forest and trashing their own rivers,

If you want to find the old Mayan spiritual practices, you still can. It is even on display at some touristy places like Chichicastenango. I am sure it is much stronger in small villages. In fact I hear there is a bit of a revival going on right now. Corn is still holy. I was super excited to hear stories about people hearing the ch´ol cuink ("heart men" or the mystical Mayans that some blieve still live in the forest) and my librarian buddy talking about the mountain God. Despite reservations as a Christian (a Christian brother to them, as they are Christian too) more than anything I was just interested to hear about beliefs these two had that are a continuation of religious beliefs that were here before Christianity. There is something impressive about that, and besides, I have not been here near long enough to argue spiritual points with people here.

But I am not going to regret the loss of ancient culture. It is a choice for them to make. I will regret changes that, along with changes Europeans made long ago, lead towards unhealthy relationships with our surrounding world and can lead towards harmful things such as global warming. I don´t want to see Q´eqchi´ people cutting down the forest, but not because they are “betraying the traditions that run in their blood,” but because they are taking part in an almost completely modern problem that could have bad results for all of us. I regret that while many might shed a tear for the loss of ancient culture, we deny that that culture, being stuck in the first chapter of history books, has anything to teach us today.

My friends Enrique and Adolfo (Qeqchi (decendets of the Maya!!)) celebrating Obamas victory. Maybe there "spiritual connection to the Earth" told them that Obama would be better than Mccain.... I don{t know....

Jordan

ps. I actually bribed them with cake.