Mayan shares story of persecution, triumph
NOTI -- Tek Diego Itzep Pasa was raised where butterflies are as big magazine pages, where panthers roam, and where the earth is so fertile it can produce four crops each year. But before his people work the soil they ask the earth for permission to touch it.
Tek Diego Itzep Pasa is from the Mayan Quiche community of Los Cimientos in the mountains of Guatemala. Earlier this month, through an interpreter, he brought his story to fourth and fifth graders at Noti Elementary at the invitation of the Fern Ridge Human Rights Coalition.
A spokesperson for his community Tek tells the story of his people's struggle to regain their land from the Guatemalan military.
After opening with a song, Tek described his childhood and his grandfather who was a village priest. He told of walking seven hours simply to catch a bus for the city and of using a small horse to carry his harvest. He showed pictures of the colorful national bird, the Quetzal, that lives in the community along with many other species of birds and animals.
He described trees 70 meters tall that could scream and grab a person with their vines. Once, as a boy, he was grabbed by such a tree but he recited a special prayer taught to him by his grandfather and the tree released him.
Mayan priests "speak to the trees and listen to the butterflies," Tek explained. Once his grandfather let him pick up a poisonous snake with the faith that his special chant would keep the snake from biting, which it did.
Tek shared some of the colorful clothing made and worn by the people of his community. He explained that the symbols embroidered on the blouses, for example, have meaning. A cross represents a sacred tree. Other symbols represent volcanoes and the ocean.
He described his people's diet of corn, black beans, oranges, coffee, and chili beans. But in 1980, everything changed, Tek said. The Guatemalan military swept through the highlands, burning hundreds of villages. Tek, then 13, saw the young and the elderly alike burned along with their homes.
The 672 people of his community along with those of other communities were forced into what were called "model villages" that were nothing more than work camps. People of all ages were transported for up to 14 hours in large trucks to work slave-style on commercial coffee sugar and cotton plantations. The conditions were so bad many died from malaria, pesticide poisoning, and malnutrition.
Tek wanted to go to school but couldn't afford it. Since his first language was one of more than 22 different Mayan dialects, he had to learn to communicate with the young people, which he did through playing soccer. His friends began to teach him Spanish and he learned to read and write.
After 13 years of deprivation in the "model villages," Los Cimientos community members began a legal battle to reclaim their land, which was legally deeded to the village priest years ago. The community owns the land and the courts have verified its ownership.
Los Cimientos is in an area called a "cloud forest," which means it is beautiful and warm every day and has rain and thunderstorms at night. The military took the land because it is the most fertile, water-rich land in the area and is also valued by international investors. The military put 50 families from another Mayan ethnic group, controlled by the army, onto the land and together they reaped the profits of the four annual harvests.
A year ago, Tek came to the US as an ambassador with the Mayan Connection-Los Cimientos Alliance. According to group coordinator Francia Ala, the alliance is part of a network of friends in the US that works to stop the holocaust in Guatemala that has tortured native people's land and lives for more than 500 years.
Ala said it's no coincidence that, one day after Tek left for the US, the military moved off his native land. Just six months ago the people of Los Cimientos returned to their village. Although legally there, they are still not at peace as 50 "civil patrol" families remain. Other communities are still struggling and have looked to the Los Cimientos people as an inspiration, he said.
As part of his presentation Tek chose students Erick Tadlock and Ginny Thompson to don traditional Mayan clothing. He also demonstrated the use of "divination seeds" to maw significant calendar days.
Tek is now 27 and a father. He win continue to speak in various parts of the country before returning to his home. One souvenir he will be taking with him is a Noti Elementary tee shirt.