News
Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town, a book by Professor Barbara Rogoff (with Chona Pérez González, Chonita Chavajay Quiacaín, and Josué Chavajay Quiacaín) is now available. It is $31.95 in its hardcover form (through Amazon.com) or $28.76 as a downloadable Kindle Edition. The book focuses on the history and development of San Pedro La Laguna and highlights the role of a beloved midwife and town leader, Chona Pérez González, over the last few decades. Rogoff draws from more than thirty years of experience working in SPLL and adorns the book with a series of wonderful photos that the anthropologists Benjamin and Lois Paul began in the 1940s and that Rogoff and her daughter have continued documenting through the 1970s and 1990s. While the book is a little expensive, it's a worthy purchase as Professor Rogoff is donating all author proceeds to the Taa' Pi't Kortees Learning Center NGO in San Pedro.
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Update/ Petition Concerning Murder of Maya Artist and
Activist Leonardo Guarcax Gonzales
Estimados/as compañeros/as, amigas y amigos, les adjuntamos el "pronunciamiento"
sobre el terrible crimen contra el artista y poeta Maya Lisandro Guarcax
González, esperamos pùblicarlo en medios escritos y será muy valiosa la
adhesion de sus organizaciones, instituciones, colectivos, grupos... para
hacer presión ante los organismos de justicia a nivel nacional e
internacional y sentar precedente para otros muchos casos.
Agradeceremos nos envien su confirmación con el nombre de su org. a esta
dirección de correo:
Tu corazón florece <tucorazonflorece@gmail.com>
**************************
La comunidad artística, organizaciones indígenas, sociales y campesinas
nacionales e internacionales
Manifestamos
Nuestra total indignación y repudio ante el secuestro y cruel asesinato del
artista Maya Kaqchiquel Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax González, coordinador del
Centro Cultural y grupo Sotzil Jay, con el cual se presentó por toda
Guatemala y en festivales de América y Europa; responsable de un trabajo
serio, consciente y de alta calidad artística en diversas disciplinas, como
la música, la danza, la poesía y el teatro; investigador del arte Maya
prehispánico; generador de sueños y acciones para la transformación del país
y de la sociedad a través de la reivindicación del pueblo Maya; noble
educador, comprometido con la niñez, la juventud y los derechos colectivos
de los pueblos originarios a través del arte; guía espiritual, sabio
compañero, hermano y amigo.
Denunciamos
Que Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax González, originario de El Tablón, Sololá, fue
secuestrado el pasado 25 de agosto, cuando se dirigía a la Escuela Oficial
de la comunidad Chuacruz, del municipio de Sololá, donde trabajaba como
director y maestro. Su cadáver fue encontrado horas después con graves
señales de tortura. Este hecho criminal inaceptable contra un defensor de
los derechos humanos, afecta profundamente la cultura y el arte en nuestro
país, visibiliza una vez más el clima de violencia y zozobra que vivimos, la
represión y criminalización brutal hacia los pueblos y las voces generadoras
de conciencia y la intolerancia hacia un mundo distinto.
Exigimos
Rotundamente al Estado de Guatemala y al sistema de justicia nacional e
internacional que este hecho no quede en la impunidad; que se le dé
seguimiento y agilicen las investigaciones respectivas; y que se castigue a
los responsables de este terrible crimen. Asimismo, nos solidarizamos con la
familia Guarcax y con el Centro Cultural Sotz'il Jay, que ya han perdido a
dos de sus familiares y colaboradores, pues en el año 2009 también fueron
asesinados Ernesto y Carlos Emilio Guarcax González, crímenes que hasta el
momento siguen impunes. Lisandro Guarcax vuelve a la madre tierra como dador
de vida. Su conocimiento está vivo entre nosotros, en su comunidad y se
conserva como un semillero en el Centro Cultural y grupo Sotz'il Jay, como
un valioso legado para las generaciones presentes y futuras.
Tu corazón florece
http://www.gruposotzil.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqIRuVl0vFQ
************
The national and international artistic community, indigenous, farmers´ and
social organizations
We all manifest our total indignation and repulse faced with the abduction
and cruel killing of Mayan Kaqchikel artist Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax
González, coordinator of the Sotz´il Jay Cultural Centre and group, with
which he performed all over Guatemala as well as at Latin-American and
European festivals. He was responsible for a serious, conscious work of high
quality within different disciplines like music, dance, poetry and theatre;
investigating the Mayan pre-Hispanic art, generating dreams and creating
action for the transformation of our country and society, through the
reclaim of the Mayan peoples and their culture. He was a noble educator,
greatly committed to his work with children, youngsters as well as his work
for the collective rights of indigenous peoples through art. Lisandro was a
spiritual guide, a wise companion, brother and friend.
We all denounce that Leonardo Lisandro Guarcax González, from El Tablón,
Sololá, was abducted on the 25th of August, while on his way to the Official
School of the Chuacruz community, in the municipality of Sololá, where he
worked as a headmaster and teacher. His body was found hours later with
severe signs of torture. This inacceptable criminal act against a defender
of Human Rights strongly affects the cultural and artistic life of our
country, and shows once again the climate of violence and restlessness in
which we live, the degree of repression and criminalization of our people
and the voices generating conscience, the intolerance of a different world.
We fervently demand that the Guatemalan State, the national and
international judicial system, do not leave this case in impunity, we demand
that it be followed up on and that the appropriate investigations are put
into action and that the ones responsible for this terrible crime must be
punished. At the same time, we show our solidarity with the Guarcax family
and the Sotz´il Jay Cultural Centre, who already lost two other family
members and collaborators, due to the killings of Ernesto and Carlos Emilio
Guarcax González in 2009, crimes which until now have been left in impunity.
Lisandro Guarcax returns to mother Earth as a giver of life. His wisdom is
alive amongst us and in his community. It is preserved as a seed of constant
growth at the Sotz´il Jay Cultural Centre, as a treasured heritage for the
present generation and the ones to come.
Your heart blooms.
http://www.gruposotzil.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqIRuVl0vFQ
--
Rosa Chávez
Cel.43758310
Ofic.Asociación Maya Ukux Be 78392289
"TU CORAZÓN FLORECE"
