Mission to Guatemala Preparation for the June Pilgrimage

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Takaji My Relatives

As part of my preparations for the upcoming pilgrimage to the sacred sites of the Mayas in Guatemala this coming June I travelled to the traditional highlands of that country in March of 2011 to confer with the elders who will be guiding us on this powerful nine-day experience.

 

This is a land where most of the women still wear their traditional hand-woven "corte" skirts, each one colorfully and graphically announcing the town in which she lives.

Ixil Maya women in their traditional hand-woven colorful maroon "corte" skirts and gorgeous embroidered "huipil" blouses stroll naturaly all over the streets of Nebaj, the tiny vilage  where I stayed while on my mission to meet with the elders.

 

While at the outdoor market we ran into the wife and young son of  Antonio Aj Ik, the man with whom I have been working and teaching for almost three years all over the eastern U.S. sharing the truth of his people's prophetic tradition.

You can tell that Antonio's wife is not an Ixil but rather a K'iche Maya because she does not wear the traditional maroon Ixil "corte" skirt. Her corte is blue and bears a different woven pattern. The Ixils and the K'iche speak different Maya languages and although these languages are not mutually intelligible the people go through the trouble of learning each other's tongue and now live in peace side by side in this small mountain community.

 

The men typically have abandoned the traditional native dress and as can be seen in the case of Antonio's young brother and his father seen here at the market where we ran into Antonio's wife. They wear typical western European and U.S. clothes, T-shits, sweat-shirts and jeans.

However the tradition is so strong here that from time to time one runs into an older man who is still wearing his traditional outfit. This old man was selling ceremonial candles at the steps of the local Catholic church in the main square of the town of Nebaj. I bough some of his candles in preparation for the ceremony I expected to participate in later during my visit. i also bought the local copal incense.

Notice the old woman in the background who has just finished doing special prayers in the church and is walking out barefoot.

 

The Highland Maya combine Catholic religion with ancient millenarian Indigenous tradition that dates back from the time before Jesus was born.

I held my meeting with the elders Don Telesforo, who is Antonio's father, Don Filiberto who is presently in the process of organizing and constructing a sacred ceremonial and teaching center in his town nearby, Don Francisco, Dona Santos and Dona Ana, We gathered at the town square and conferred for several hours in the modest outdoor patio of my hotel. Then we ate brunch at a nearby eatery.

   After my meeting with the elders, Don Telesforo guided me to key people and organizations in the town who could help me with our plans of marketing traditional Guatemalan handcrafted artwork in the USA to raise funds for Don Filiberto's project and for our assistance of the IX Canaan women's organization in Ramate, in the Peten jungle.

 

One of these people was the weaver Dona Rosa whom we met at the local Nebaj crafts center.

I made plans with Dona Rosa to market her weavings and the weavings of other women in the area through the Caney Indigenous Circle.

 

After my visit to the highlands I journied deep into the lowland rainforest of the Peten in the north, not far from the site of the most spectacular ancient classic-era Maya sacred ancestral sites.

I arrived in Ramate on the shores of Lake Peten Itza and met with the women of Ix Canaan who devote themselves to creating beautiful hand-crafted wooden carvings. I delivered power tools which I had brought in behalf of the Caney Indigenous Circle as the first installment in what I hope will be an on-going project of assistance of these artists with art supplies of all kinds. They had a lot of fun trying out the unfamiliar Dremmel tool, which when they are able to master, will make their work a great deal easier.

I also gave them an electric handsaw and watercolor paints. As part of my gift I created an instructional video that provides them detailed instructions on the use and care of the tools as well as several manuals in Spanish. In this photo the ladies watch the instruction video on my laptop computer.

Soon I hope to be marketing beautifully crafted wood carvings such as these, created by these women as well as other items such as basketry and small jewelry.

The last portion of my visit in the Peten was spent with a local Maya holy man, Tata Chus, who recognized my status of spiritual guide of my Taino people and took me on a special personal journey among the most powerful energy centers of the two nearby ancestral sacred sites, Tikal and Uaxactun.

 

We performed joint tobacco ceremony among the imposing temple pyramids and stelae of these two timeless energy centers.

Then in Uaxactun we culminated the journey with a small Maya fire ceremony using some of the candles and copal that I had acquired in Nebaj.

 

 

Tata Chus and I capped off our prayerful visit to Uaxactun by meditating as we faced the three sacred monuments of the so-called "Group-E" which are special archeo-astronomical guide points that allow for the calculations of Solstices and Equinoxes.

Taino Ti

Miguel 

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Tenanche

The circumstances of our meeting in the market were actually comical. Don Telesforo (Antonio's dad) and Juan ( Antonio's brother) were guiding me through the market and I was kind of looking around with a stupid look on my face dazzled by all of the color and culture when suddenly I realized that they were both excitedly calling to me and yanking at my sleeve. When I finally came out of my stupor and looked down at them I realized they were pointing at a woman right there in front of me who was leading a child by the hand. The two men kept shouting "This is Antonio's wife!" "This is Antonio's wife".  I suddenly realized what was happening and in my own akward manner began to pump her hand excitedly up and down in both my hands, yelling in Spanish over the noise in the market: "I am Antonio's friend Miguel"..."I am Antonio's friend Miguel".

 

The thing that makes this episode even funnier is that for a few minutes she had no idea what the heck was going on since she doesn't speak Spanish at all! She kept staring up into my face with a kind of "who is this wacko" look on her face. Only when Juan finally made her understand who I was in her own K'iche language did she finally get the unmistakable look of recognition on her face and her eyes widened and she said "Miguel!!!???" and I said "Yes! Yes! I am Miguel". Of course she knows all about me since Antonio has been keeping his family appraised of our activities for over two years now but I don't think anybody told her that I was actually coming to Guatemala so the meeting caught her completely by surprise! 

It was all very funny. I asked her to pose for a photo for me to take back to Antonio and she started giggling shyly and rapidly pulled a soiled t-shirt off her son's back and replaced it with a clean one while he laughed hysterically. I ended up with a priceless pic as you can see.

[Tenanche Semiata Rose Golden]

Tajiki Brother Miguel,

 

I was wondering if you had returned from your journey to Guatemala. Wow, what a wonderful experience! Thank you for sharing all of the great photos of the spiritual elders and the people that you visited there. It's interesting that you "ran into" Antonio's wife and son in the market. Coincidence? Not! I look forward to hearing and seeing more about your trip from you personally sometime soon, hopefully.

 

Taino Ti,

Tenanche