Winter/Spring 2003

The Spirituality of Peace: learning the value of earth and ecology from the Mayas

Beginning in October last year, José “Chencho” Alas started giving Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace workshops in Mesoamerica: the region from southern Mexico to Panama. These were part of a project that seeks to rescue and reinforce local principles and values for peace, particularly as they relate to the earth and ecology.

Although people from all walks of life and more than 10 countries have participated in these workshops, it is perhaps the Maya who have opened the most new perspectives on the earth and ecology.

The Mayan people still maintain a strong spiritual bond with Mother Earth. Before sowing a crop, they pray and ask the earth permission; when they celebrate weddings, the married couple dances barefoot in order to touch the earth which gives us life; all creatures are sacred and have the right to eat, even rats in the fields (though it is okay to persuade the rats to not eat ones crops).

Juana Vasquez translates from Kaqchikel to Spanish as Olga Tumax explains Mayan Cosmovision.

Mayan Cosmovision, their view of the harmonious balance in the universe, identifies humans as part of the whole universe, not superior to it or separate from it. Mayan spiritual leaders have recognized that human activity has disturbed the universe’s balance and they seek to restore it.

Just like the Christian, Jewish, and secular participants in this project, the Mayan participants seek to work ecumenically to identify principles and values for peace.

For more information about the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Project, you can visit the project website: www.theologyofpeace.org.

A Contemporary Mayan Story: The Two Youths from Livingston

As told by Federico Castillo

In the community Sebilá Livingston, Izabel, there were two teens from different families. Maria, a 14 year-old, and an 18 year old boy. One day, in the blink of an eye, Maria was snatched from the corner of her home and inserted into a hole in the earth. She instantly realized that she was underground. A large family had prepared a large table and invited her to eat.

Left to Right: Juana Vasquez & Olga Tumax (Ixmucane Association), Lorenza Laynes (Rigoberta Menchu Foundation), and Federico Castillo (Uk’u’x’ Mayab’ Tinamit National Movement).

During the meal, they talked and they told her that they were very annoyed with people on the surface because they did not give thanks, as their grandmothers and grandfathers had, for everything they received from Mother Earth. Instead, these days they don’t have ceremonies, which has lead to many problems. “They have forgotten, neglected, wasted, and stomped on the old customs. Now, they don’t use the sacred corn wisely, they leave tortillas lying around instead of respecting them. If people see a penny or five cents on the ground, they quickly pick it up. But if it is a grain of corn or a bean, they don’t even notice it. We’re also tired of all the noise from machines everywhere. People just make noise, they don’t do anything.

”Mother Earth is becoming more and more polluted,” continued the family. “The earth is being used as a commodity, not as a source of life. For that reason, the candles that your ancestors left lit are about to burn out. If people don’t start having ceremonies again and feeding Mother Earth, big things will happen and the sacred Corn will run out.

”So,” they told Maria, “gather everyone together and tell them to build a house for prayer and meeting where your house stands. The new house will be exclusively for prayer and meeting, so they will have to build you a new house next door.”

When Maria went home, she told her parents everything. They didn’t believe her. Although she was taken many more times into the earth, and they demanded that she gather the people together, the people didn’t believe her. Maria got sick because nobody believed her.

A few days later, a teenage boy from another family disappeared for three days. He entered the earth through a cave and ended up at the same place Maria had gone. While he was there, he received the same messages that Maria had, and was told to gather the elders to repeat them to them.

Back on the surface, the elders didn’t pay attention to him, but he took them to the hill where the cave was located. He showed them the ear of corn made of yellow stone: the sacred altar called ca cau cuc. As they approached the cave, a bright light shone on them like the light from a car. Even with these signs, they elders didn’t believe the young man. Then, in the middle of the light they saw an old man with white hair. As the old man moved away, the teen followed him but was bounced back when he tried to enter the cave. The old man told him, “This happened to you for bringing people you shouldn’t have brought.”

The teen left and the elders told him that they had seen the old man with white hair. “Well then,” said the teen, “we need to gather the people together to tell them what we have seen.”

So, the elders gathered the people together and told them what they had seen and what the teen had been told: “We have to build a structure for ceremonies. We have to take care of the sacred corn, the earth, the water, the plants, the animals, and not kill the earth with chemicals.” The elders and the community worked together to do as they had been instructed, and Maria recovered from her illness.

Today, this community has a council of elders. They are organized and they gather the community together when people arrive. They are happy to prepare food and accompany visitors to the ceremonial places to pay respect to the earth.

Don Federico’s story is simple, yet full of symbols and messages. The two youths represent innocence and purity. They have to enter deep into the earth, as in a mother’s womb, to understand the conditions that Mother Earth suffers. Maria is fed a big meal, which in all cultures represents participation, solidarity, and union. Mother Earth is unhappy: humans have transformed her from a source of life into a commodity. The candle represents the life of the Earth: when it goes out the corn, water, plants, and animals will also be extinguished. Society did not listen to the young woman; they did not value her words, as they did the young man’s. Finally, there is insistence in the need to build a sacred place for meetings and prayer; the human spirit needs these places to nourish itself with the principles of respect and harmony. –José “Chencho” Alas

SPECIAL THANKS

The solidarity of many generous individuals and organizations is making this work for peace and self-sufficiency possible. Outstanding donor organizations during the last few months include:

Marshall T. Meyer Memorial Fund
American Jewish World Service
Communitas
Shefa Fund
   
We are also thankful for gifts made in honor of:
Paula & Harold Baron,
Joe & Pam Cali,
Carol Witter & James Hunt,
and Adam Schneider

Teaching and learning in the Bajo Lempa

By Anna Von Essen

Anna, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, volunteered with the FSSCA and Coordinadora from August through December 2002. Her students speak fondly of her and hope that she can return some day soon.

I lived in the Bajo Lempa region of El Salvador for four months teaching English with the Coordinadora. I knew that this Christmas would be bittersweet as I ate Salvadoran tamales and got ready for my flight back to the States. In reflection I think of the all my weeks in front of a blackboard or with a paper on my lap writing English words and laughing at my Spanish. My English classes have been wonderful but, in truth, the classes mostly became a tool to get acquainted with my students and create friendships. In the end, my months in El Salvador have been more about learning than teaching.

I learned also in between classes when I visited Coordinadora projects. I have seen many parcels of land where campesino families are growing beautiful crops of tomatoes and chilies. As the farmers talk of their own crops it is the light in their eyes that surpasses languages and communicates the truth: hope is alive in this tiny country. Liberated crops can grow out of earth that has been tortured for centuries. The light of this harvest is now being passed to a new group of Salvadorans. After harvest the tomatoes and chilies are brought in pick-ups to the patio of my friend Marta.

I give English classes out front of Marta’s house. The handful of women that come for my classes are waiting for the construction of a market; the newest project of the Coordinadora. The plan is to create a market, restaurant, and hotel that will cater to locals and travelers on their way to the east side of the country. These women are learning how to sort tomatoes and I have found myself practicing “good afternoon” with them over tables of tomatoes. I want these women’s dreams to be realized and one incident in particular caused me to see the great importance of this roadside market.

In November, I was going to San Salvador in the cab of a pick-up. We stopped in traffic at a construction site and the street immediately filled with young men and women selling food to the restless drivers and bus passengers. This is hard work, on the cement in the sun with car fumes in your lungs. The young vendors work from six in the morning work until seven at night and then head home, many on foot. On a good day $20 can be made, but many times a vendor will walk home empty-handed. Thus, a car stopped in traffic endures a constant surge of questions: “do you want oranges, pop, candy, sweet bread, gum?” I had become accustomed to this process, simply answering no gracias without much of a glance. Amidst the vendors a young woman asked if we wanted a bag of cashews. My head facing directly forward I politely responded “no gracias,” until I heard my name. The use of my name changed everything; the situation was no longer anonymous. I turned my head and saw my friend and student Deysey. Deysey is my age, twenty-two. She has a young daughter and also supports three siblings. I knew from conversations in my class that she worked on the streets vending but hearing a life story and actually seeing it are two very different things.

That afternoon I learn a lesson in humility and I also saw the market project as a new job for my compañera Deysey. When the market is standing full of produce, grown by the sweat and hope of families in Las Mesas or Amando Lopez, Deysey will be standing behind the crates. She will not be walking all day on the hot pavement selling nuts. This new project of the Coordinadora will give women of the Bajo Lempa a dignified job: both providing them new skills and participation in developing a business. In closing I wish to send to you, along with these words, the joy and hope I have experienced with this women while working toward the future of a Coordinadora marketplace.

Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2003

The Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America is a US non-profit organization (501c3) dedicated to supporting the movement for Peace and Justice in El Salvador and the rest of Central America.