Tag Archives: Akabal

11/5/21

Colonial Serpents

Humberto Ak’abal’s poem “Paradise” references the Biblical book of Genesis and the story of the garden of Eden. When I read this poem, I interpreted the serpents as colonizers and colonial entities. Ak’abal writes that “there was no forbidden fruit/the snakes were mute” (3-4). Before the colonizers, life was paradise. The “fruit” could be interpreted as traditional indigenous cultural practices. Therefore, once the serpents spoke, they “forbade the fruit and divided paradise among themselves” (10-12) can be understood as the banning of indigenous culture in favour of assimilation. No longer does the land belong to the indigenous people, it was forcefully taken by colonial forces who gave little thought to the rightful owners of the land. This reminded me of the Canadian government and Catholic Church’s program of residential schools in Canada. The purpose was to “kill the Indian within the child”, and to assimilate into so-called “civilized” white society. Ak’abal seems to be lamenting the interventionist practices of colonial settlers, and reminiscing over times when the land belonged to the Indigenous peoples, who treated it with respect. Land is more than just a “resource”, it is also a family member in many Indigenous cultures. Paradise can only last as long as it is not infected by colonial greed.

09/26/21

Religious Critiques and Their Effects

I find his critique on Colonialism in the Paradise text to be very profound. I can see this becoming very controversial for the time. I am curious to hear other students’ perspectives on the matter. Do you think its parallels would have warranted a reaction similar to that of Paradise Lost (A text famous for its critique on the bible, God, and the fall of Lucifer) or other critiques of the religion? I think its main difference with Paradise lost is that it’s not directly critiquing the bible, rather the people who are colonizing their culture and changing their paradise for the worse in the name of God. It does a good job of pointing out the irony of holiness in this type of setting. I could see the lines where he refers to the colonizers as “serpents [who] spoke, forbade the fruit and decided paradise among themselves” could be a particularly divisive statement as a snake is considered to be a representation of the devil. It also indirectly brings to light the idea of religious freedom. As much as it is their right to practice Christianity it is also the right of the “Indio” to freely embrace their paradise in order to embrace their spirituality. Why should religious freedom be only applicable to Christians at the expense of Native Americans? I hope the effect of this poem did manage to provide a meaningful critique that hopefully some Christians at the time took to heart and convinced them to become supporters of indigenous beliefs, despite their differences. 

09/24/21

On Ak’abal’s “In the K’iche Language”

Situated on a section of its own, Humberto Ak’abal’s poem “In the K’iche Language” provides an interesting framework for the rest of the collection. It is the only poem we read from this collection that is not part of the “500 Years” section. In fact, it is separated from the rest of the poems and has its own accompanying image, which displays a Guatemalan cemetery. The image depicts different cells of people celebrating around graves. When studying it, it is difficult not to recall the “Dia de Los Muertos” tradition generally thought to be Mexican. However, this tradition originates from some parts of Mayan culture, from the ceremony by the name of ‘Hanal Pixan’. Hanal Pixan is a day where families gather and spend the day celebrating with the spirits of their deceased loved ones. It is a tradition that looks at death not as a finality, but as a part of life. Having this image before the “In the K’iche Language” poem makes perfect sense. The poem itself is very simple, it has two verses, four lines, and has a very clear message. “In the K’iche Language/ we don’t say good-bye/ but katinch’ab’ej chik/ (I’ll talk to you again),” (page 152) When paired along with the image beforehand, this way of saying goodbye sheds some light into how Ak’abal’s culture addresses death and the impermanence of things. It seems that to them things don’t end, and it is expected to see things again. Going back to the placement of the poem in the collection, I think it’s interesting to keep in mind what follows it. The next section, 500 Years, is entirely about the effect of colonialism on Indigenous cultures, and most of the poems in it discuss the subsequent plight on them. I think that “In the K’iche Language” and its placement in the section before, could be interepreted as Ak’abal’s way of saying:”We’re still here, and we’re gonna stay here. Despite everything.” It gives some hope to the 500 Years section, in retrospect.

09/23/21

A Hopeful Ending

In Ak’abal’s collection of poems, the section entitled “500 años” or “500 years” offers readers a complete storyline through a number of poems. Ak’abal introduces us to this story with the poem titled the same as the section, “500 years”. This poem gives us a context for the section, one critical of the treatment and status of Indigenous peoples. “500 years”, “pain”, and “holes” work together to paint a picture of the injustice (p 155, line 5), misery (p 157, line 1), and poverty (p 162, line 4) experienced by Indigenous people, and by Ak’abal. The poem titled “paradise” enlightens us to the cause of this mistreatment of Indigenous people, colonization. This particular poem begins with a description of a world of paradise, without sin, but soon transitions to a world of violence where the powerful enforce their will on others (page 159).

These poems give us the beginning and the middle of a story of colonization and oppression. However, the final poem of the section “the lamb” leaves me thinking there is hope for this story. This final poem speaks of a lamb and a shepherdess, as the shepherdess licks the lambs wound (page 163). As Ak’abal ended this section with this poem, I am left thinking that the lamb represents the oppressed Indigenous people, and the shepherdess represents a more abstract idea of hope, or freedom, or justice. His choice of finishing this section that is filled with a depiction of the creation and perpetuation of the minority status of Indigenous people with a poem of healing and comfort reveals an intent to rewrite the end of a story of oppression and change it into one of hope.

09/23/21

Here is Paratext

The paratext used in Here Was Paradise, by Humberto Ak’abal, help the reader to understand the deeper meaning behind the poems.

The 500 Years introductory image supports the idea that the section is about Spanish colonization of the Mayans. The image depicts a leopard jumping across the page, surrounded by various animals and a string of beads. However, only the leopard and the snake are wrapped by these beads while the other animals remain free. The poem Paradise, which is Ak’abal’s rendition on the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, where sin was introduced to the world through Satan appearing as a serpent, also commentates on the influence of Catholicism in modern Mayan culture.  With the knowledge from the poem, the image takes on a new meaning; the beads become a rosary, and the snake is now the conquistadors who have tied the leopard to them through the rosary. This depicts the connection between Catholicism and indigenous religions, which formed when Spanish conquistadors forcefully converted indigenous peoples after taking their land, forever changing how people practiced spirituality and religion. The words and the image work together to sell the main idea to the reader. 

The use of paratext not only reinforces a main idea, but also allows the main idea to be applied to every poem, even when it is not as obvious. The poem “Pain” is not explicitly about colonialism, but within the context of the section title and illustration, it becomes clear that the poem is not just about any suffering; rather, suffering because of colonialism.

In conclusion, the paratext, including the section headings and introductory images, surrounding Here Was Paradise help the reader to make sense of the poems, and reinforce the main ideas.

09/23/21
"Old Feedsack Rag Balls" by 'Playingwithbrushes' is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The Will of Rags

"Old Feedsack Rag Balls" by 'Playingwithbrushes' is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“Old Feedsack Rag Balls” by ‘Playingwithbrushes’ is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In Ak’abal’s poems, each line is worth a thousand words. There is often a metric ton of subtext/context that is contained within these poems, especially if you can recognize his history both as a poet and the history of his people. To achieve this, Ak’abal uses a substantial amount of literary and rhetorical devices to help him convey his messages. For example, “they hurt, / they hurt” is a form of repetition in Pain, while  “weight of poverty, / of indifference, / of injustice” in 500 Years is an example of Anaphora – where a poem repeats the same phrase at the beginning of each line (Ak’abal Pain, lines 3-4 | Ak’abal 500 Years, lines 3-6 ). Pain is a masterful poem, it conveys many words with very few; the repetition in Pain emphasizes and exaggerates how much pain the people are suffering due to “misery / [and] poverty” (Ak’abal Pain, lines 1-2). The pain that is caused by being abandoned by the colonists and the government. These two words, misery and poverty, by itself, can cause a startling image to form in ones mind. This is further illustrated in the next lines of Pain, where the Mayan and Indigenous people were so demoralized that they would rather be “a piece of rag” – an inanimate object (Ak’abal Pain, lines 5-6)! Thus, this demonstrates what they were going through – their wills were reduced to nothing more than the tattered cloth of a peasant or slave. However, even with their battered and withered wills, they still want to “be useful [like a patch]” to other people (Ak’abal Pain, lines 7-8). A patch that could mend wounds, correct errors, or even hastily repair what has been lost. Ak’abal is establishing that THIS IS THE WILL OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE! They want to prove that even on death’s door, they were willing to forgive – to make amends with those that have wronged them. Ak’abal and the Indigenous were not looking for something as petty or hateful as vengeance – they were the better men – men that were willing to forgive and to mend…

 

09/22/21

Wear it proudly

After reading the four poems of “Here was paradise” by Humberto Ak’abal, knowing that he is from Guatemala we can infer that the historical background at that time influenced his writing.

I found it so fascinating that even when he was living in one of the most segregated countries filled with racism, violence and discrimination towards indigenous people, he self-identified with the mayan culture and he was proud and honored of his roots, the most relevant example is that he knows how to write in mayan language and his writing process involved first doing it in          K´iche´ and then translating them to Spanish. 

Quotes that the most stood out for me were in the poem: “When I woke up”; “and pull out a rib” (Line 7) and “made of mud and corn,”(Line 12) are allusion to both mayan culture (Popol Vuh) and christian religion, In the mayan culture it said that the woman was made from mud and corn grains but here he mixes it with the Bible that states that Eva was made from Adam´rib, it shows how he identifies as a mestizo, he doesn’t have anger towards his older generations or how the spanish stole their initial and real culture beliefs, he accepts both equally.

I believe the initial theme in “When I woke up” is solitude but eventually it had a “solution”, a light, that at the end everything will be alright. Humberto’s writing is filled with optimism even after his death; it still gives the hope that at some point things in his country could improve.