Embedded Files
Introduction
This storybook retells three stories collected from villages on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala that were originally published in Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth, and Other Mayan Folktales by James D. Sexton and Ignacio Bizarro Ujpán. This storybook tells the tales through the lens of a young Guatemalan named Martina who lives on the lake in La Laguna, Guatemala.
Martina comes in possession of a book with the same title, although in the storybook it was written in ancient times—much longer ago than 1999.
The stories in the original source have themes about race, indigenous vs. Spanish culture, religion, luck and rituals for good fortune, and morality. This storybook focuses mainly on the supernatural elements of the stories, because the book functions for Martina as a magical escape from her daily life. Dreams play an important role in providing characters information they seek in the original source, so this storybook tells stories through dreams as well. It's ambiguous whether they are actually real in Martina's world or not.
The introduction story uses details from the first tale in the book, "Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth: A Tzutuhil Tale." This story is about ancient Mayans who had great powers; they could disappear, fly, and defeat the Spaniards. However, only some of the Mayans had these powers, and when the Spanish did come, all the powerful ones disappeared into the clouds, under the lake, or into the volcano. According to the story, these ancient Tzutuhils are still in Guatemala in spirit, though they are no longer visible and none of the remaining Mayans have these powers.
First Dream: Story of the Goddess of the Lake
This story retells "Story of the Goddess of the Lake" from the book. In the original story, the protagonist is the young boy. He loses his parents who drown in the lake, and his older siblings treat him poorly and take all the inheritance. He is sad all the time because of grief for his parents, poverty, and the cruelty of his older siblings. Through dreams, the boy meets his parents again—they are living with other drowned people at the bottom of the lake. The goddess of the lake takes him there to visit them and invites him to stay. The boy says many times that he knows they are truly dead, and when he tries to touch them he can't. At the end of the tale, he mysteriously disappears, and villagers think he has gone to live with the goddess. The story says that sometimes a crying young man or a beautiful woman can be seen on Santa Cruz beach, but each disappears if you get too close. In the new version, Martina is an additional character who interacts with many people from the original.
In the story, the goddess calls herself a dueńa. This means owner or master, and comes from the Latin domina. In Guatemalan folktales, dueños and dueñas rule over things like hunting, the night, the rain, or a certain place, similar to minor gods and goddesses.
The path the goddess creates on the way under the lake is surrounded by flowers. The original story does not say what type, but I chose orchids because that's the national flower of Guatemala.
Second Dream: The Legend of Francisco Sojuel
This story retells "The Legend of Francisco Sojuel" from the book. In the original tale, the village tries to execute Sojuel multiple times after he escapes from prison, but they never can. Their weapons don't work, or he cleverly escapes their plots. Sojuel's "naguales," or animal forms, include a cat, a dog, a hummingbird, and a beautiful woman. He uses various forms to escape his enemies.
Sojuel is a son of San Simón. San Simón is also known as Hermano Simón, Maximón, Judas Iscariot, and Don Pedro de Alvarado. San Simón is a folk figure, almost like a god, in certain areas of Guatemala, like Chimaltenango and the Petén region. The Catholic church does not recognize him as a saint, and other regions of Guatemala such as San Jose equate him with the devil.
My story mentions rituals a couple times. Women perform them at San Simon's shrine to have his son, and Francisco Sojuel performs them to gain power and show devotion to saints, dueños, and God. These rituals are called costumbres, and they are superstitious actions that bring good luck. In Guatemala, they're associated with folk religion, and the Catholic church does not condone them.
In this story, the characters have nagual forms. That means that they have the ability to shapeshift into animals. The most common animal forms in Mayan folklore are jaguars and other cats, so I had Martina turn into a cat. Stories often tell of naguales doing evil during the night, but in this story the naguales are good.
Third Dream: Sacred Story of Two Dueños
This story retells "A Sacred Story" from the book. For the first two stories I kept the title of the dream the same as the title of the story it's based on, but I changed this one to give a little more insight into what happens. This tale was invented by Ujpán Ignacio Bizarro as he was compiling the book, not taken from oral tradition like the first two stories. So, it can be classified as contemporary.
The original story includes additional details, like how the boys' father was killed by wild animals in the forest when he was collecting herbs. It shows townspeople trying and failing to cook rocks and pour water out of the jar, and it also explains more about how they repent. I left these details out of the retelling because of space constraints and plot considerations.
The two other stories Martina remembers reading are "Simple Simon" and "Story of an Enchanted Place, Paruchi Abaj" both of which are real stories from the book. I decided to retell "A Sacred Story" because I like how it tells about the origin of two dueños and thought that might add more to the project. I also enjoyed having other children as main characters, because they are more relatable for Martina.
Martina's family attends Iglesia Católica de San Juan La Laguna, which is a real church. Here are some photos of it. It is one of a few different Catholic churches in La Laguna. My family is Catholic, so I felt more comfortable writing about a Catholic family than a Protestant one.
Below is an image of a Guatemalan forest like the one Martina would have found herself in.
Last Dream: The Fisherman and the Sea
This story in the book called "The Fisherman and the Sea" really fascinated me when I first read it, and I wanted to retell it in the third dream but decided against it. I still wanted a way to wrap up all the stories and give a conclusion to the storybook, so I incorporated this story into my epilogue. It is written by Ujpán Ignacio Bizarro, so it's a contemporary tale like the previous one. I wanted Martina to find physical objects from her dreams in real life, because that adds to the sense that the myths she reads are much more real than they get credit for.
Unlike the first three stories, Martina reads a large portion of this tale instead learning about it mostly through a dream. This story had more plot points than the others, so I found it easier to write this way. In the original, there's an additional challenge the fisherman undertakes where he has to find an object hidden in a forest, but I didn't have space to include this. Other edits from the original include changing the dueño of the sea to the goddess of the lake, because that's who readers are already familiar with.
The story mentions a ring playing chirimía music. A chirimía is a woodwind instrument often compared to an oboe and introduced to Central and South American by the Spanish.
Image Information: Banner image of Late Atitlán (2009) from chensiyuan via Wikimedia Commons.White orchids by Jessica Knowlden on Unsplash.Illustration of San Simón on Wikimedia Commons.Forest in Guatemala by Theodore Moore on UnsplashTwo Guatemalan Chimirias via Wikipedia.
Storybook Source: Sexton, J. D., & Ujpán Ignacio Bizarro. (1999). Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth, and Other Mayan Folktales. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse