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The Cohesive and Revitalizing Nature of Maya Dance, Art, and Oral History

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The Cohesive and Revitalizing Nature of Maya Dance, Art, and Oral History The cohesive and revitalizing nature of Maya dance, art, and oral history Allison D. Krogstad Abstract: Rumam Chamalkan (Nietos de los Kaqchikeles, Grandchildren of the Kaqchikel) is a folkloric dance-drama group from San Jorge La La- guna, Guatemala. Like other Maya initiatives that have come out of the postwar years in Guatemala, this group strives to preserve and maintain the traditions, memory, and identity of the Maya by retelling the stories of their elders and bringing their heritage to new generations and to the world. They endeavor to unite their people around common images and symbols, binding them together, and strengthening their social connec- tivity. Eff orts of the Maya in regard to artistic, literary, and other creative expressions of heritage as well as forays into the political, economic, cul- tural, linguistic, and environmental systems of the country and world have begun, collectively and cohesively, to make a dent in the wall of in- equality, repression, and discrimination that the world has built around the Maya. Keywords: Guatemala, identity, Kaqchikel, renewal, revitalization Introduction Now that I fl y like a dove, like a bu erfl y, above forests, volcanoes and seas, so too I wish my people could soar with liberty, fl y like the eagle and the quetzal, to savor the pollen of our lands, the richness of our ancestry.1 — Calixta Gabriel Xiquín, “Como paloma” (2002, p. 11) The words above from the poem “Como paloma” by Kaqchikel Maya poet and spiritual guide Calixta Gabriel Xiquín speak to a collectivity, “my people … our lands … our ancestry.” Like a bird, Gabriel Xiquín sees her community from above, focusing on a cohesive entirety rather than see- Regions & Cohesion Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 2014: 92–109 doi: 10.3167/reco.2014.040106 ISSN 2152-906X (Print), ISSN 2152-9078 (Online) ing isolated fragments. The poet’s ultimate desire is to make those on the ground see that same unity, their shared heritage and history, and to pre- serve that unifying tradition for ages to come. The work of Maya authors, artists, musicians, and dancers keep their communities’ shared heritage at the forefront in order to bring their people together around a common sense of identity. The dance-drama group, El Grupo Folklórico Rumam Cha mal- kan, is one such group that has the unifying perspective of the dove. Jorge Jiatz Pocop, a member of Rumam Chamalkan (Nietos de los Kaqchikeles/Grandchildren of the Kaqchikel), said that the dance group was founded to “make known the stories of their ancestors” and “to give young people an opportunity to know their own customs and traditions and to feel proud of what they have” and who they are (personal commu- nication, 8 July 2012). The dances performed by Rumam Chamalkan ex- plore and share their Maya heritage, preserving it and making it relevant to the present day. For the director of the group, Filiberto Acetún Yaxón, their main purpose is to let the people of Guatemala know that “the most beautiful things that exist in Guatemala are our traditions and our cus- toms” (personal communication, 14 March 2013). This group is one ex- ample of the many ways the Maya of Guatemala are creating a new space in which they can get to know the past, in order to inform the present, so that they can venture into the future with a strong sense of self and of community. By exploring the various ways in which this identity building and preserving is taking place, we can more fully understand the history that has a empted to bring the Maya down and the strength with which they, together, have survived 500 years of a acks. According to the Popol Vuh (2007, p. 204), “Chamal Can is the name of the god of the Cakchiquels. His image was … that of a bat.” Director Fili- berto Acetún Yaxón stated that “Chamalkan is a very important character in the Popol Vuh. … He is a Kaqchikel leader/king” (personal communica- tion, 13 March 2013). In 1885, archaeologist Daniel G. Brinton, in his trans- lation of The Annals of the Cakchiquels, stated, in reference to Chamalcan in the Popol Vuh: there is li le doubt it refers, as do so many of the Cakchiquel proper names, to their calendar. Can is the fi h day of their week, and its sign is a serpent; chamal is a slightly abbreviated form of chaomal, which the lexicons translate “beauty” and “fruitfulness,” connected with chaomar, to yield abundantly. He was the serpent god of fruitfulness, and by this type suggests relations to the lightning and the showers. The bat, Zotz, was the totem of the Zotzils, the ruling family of the Cakchiquels; and from the extract quoted, they seem to have set it up as the image of Cha- malcan. (p. 40) Krogstad • The cohesive and revitalizing nature of Maya dance, art, and oral history 93 The dancers of Rumam Chamalkan, thus, draw upon their history, their cosmology, and their concept of time—and their connection to these ele- ments. They claim the ancestry of Chamalkan by calling themselves his nietos (grandchildren). They are of the present, with ties to the past, and they will carry that ancestry on into the future, where they will “yield abundantly” with “beauty” and “fruitfulness.” The group was founded in 1996 by Filiberto Acetún Yaxón and Carlos Teodoro Acetún Yaxón and is made up of members from the San Jorge La Laguna community on Lake Atitlán in the western highlands of Guate- mala. The group’s founding follows in the footsteps of the community’s a empt in 1992 to reclaim land lost to private landowners during the lib- eral dictatorships of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The peaceful takeover of the land was put down by soldiers and antimotines, but the desire of the people of San Jorge to continue to reclaim their heritage was not extinguished. Their subsequent negotiations with the landowners re- Figure 1 • San Jorge La Laguna 94 Regions & Cohesion • Spring 2014 sulted in only a small amount of land and money being returned to the village, but the lessons learned in regard to unity and rallying around their shared past, present, and future inspired the people to create envi- ronmental projects (such as recycling programs, a garbage/compost treat- ment plant, environmental education in the school, and classrooms built out of recycled material), active community groups (for youth, women, the church, etc.), and a connection with the national organization Coor- dinadora Nacional de Indígenas y Campesinos (CONIC) which supports the eff orts of indigenous communities to reclaim land and maintain heri- tage. Rumam Chamalkan was born in the midst of this cultural, social, and environmental renewal. Why is renewal necessary? In regard to his own experience in the Maya community, Wuqu’ Ajpub’ (Arnulfo Simón) (1998) stated: I continued a ending school, and we began to study history. Yet nowhere did my ancestors appear in the facts and accomplishments we studied. It seemed that the world had begun to exist only a bit over four hun- dred and fi y years before—in 1524, the year of the Spanish Conquest. One day the teacher said that before that time a group of people used to exist who were called Mayas and that they disappeared without leav- ing a trace. I did not understand very well what that meant and I felt that nothing about my history could be found anywhere; Arnulfo was the product of oblivion. This awakened in me the desire to know more about myself. (p. 177) He was a man without a past, forced to exist in “oblivion.” Without a past he could not have a present, as the past informs and infl uences the pres- ent. He and his community lacked the ties that come from shared memory and history. Takeshi Inomata (2006, p. 809) has wri en that “the memory of past events and the anticipation of future ones shape the perceptions and experiences of daily life.” Ajpub’ was being denied his heritage by its absence in the history books, in the dominant culture, and, thus, in the memory of his community. As Victor D. Montejo (2005, p. 12) argues “The Guatemalan state has consistently a empted to culturally integrate Indians into Ladino society as an underclass in an ethnically homogenous, modern nation-state rather than a distinct ethnic group with its own political agenda.” Also, Ajpub’ (1998, p. 171) stated, “All social contact has its costs, and this is especially true when sociocultural, political, and economic inequality and injustice characterize the relations between the cultures sharing the same territory.” Krogstad • The cohesive and revitalizing nature of Maya dance, art, and oral history 95 The situation of the last 500 years, of a dominant group imposing its will upon a subordinate group, had at its core the desire to assimilate the in- digenous population into the Spanish, and later the Ladino, social/cul- tural/economic/political system, thus destroying their individual cultures, heritage, and identities. This objective of the dominant group that sought to convert and control the indigenous population continued from colo- nial times to independence, in which liberties pertained only to the ruling class; through liberal dictators, who made communal property private; into and through the 36-year-long civil war, which sought outright geno- cide; and into the present, which demonstrates a continued system of in- equality and discrimination that seeks to break apart the connections that the Maya have to each other and to their cultural heritage. Ajpub’ (1998, p. 193) writes, “One of the most culturally detrimental aspects of the integration of Mayan communities into Guatemala society has been Mayas’ internalization of Ladino a itudes toward Indians, as seen in the sense of shame that o en prevents young Kaqchikel speakers from speaking the language publicly.” Ma hew Krystal (2000) also de- scribes this sense of shame: Discussions with young cultural activists about culture change and the decline of indigenous language and religious practices revealed that this change is o en a ributed to shame.
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