Documentary: Living Maya (1982)

Living Maya (1982)
Hubert Smith
University of California

The filmmaker explored the Yucatan looking for a village where they could film and observe the "living Maya". They interviewed several villages in search of both a village of about 200-350 people and a family who would allow them to be a part of their community for roughly seven months. They decided on Chican. It had a town hall, a jail, a school, a basketball court. It was about six hours or twenty miles to the doctor by foot and 90 minutes by car. There were twelve deaf people in this village. What the filmmaker agreed  in exchange for access to the daily life of the village and a family is  $3000 in cash (?). Don Reymundo, a 48 year old corn farmer who also wove hammocks, and his wife Agrafina agreed to allow his family (Ronaldo, Almacrando, Jose, Santos, Margarita - deaf and in Merida) to be filmed. Don Reymundo had to sell pavo, cochino and maize to send money to Merida for the care of his daughter.

1: The first episode focused on the system of agriculture - slash and burn.  They slash their milpa or field; it dries for 6 months; they clear it by burning it after calculating the wind. The nutrients from the ash fortify the soil with the spring rains. In May they plant corn, beans, and squash seeks all in the same hole. The different seeds provide amino acids that the other needs -- all working together.  In November, the harvest the crop, and they can use this milpa for 2 years, but then they have to let the soil rest for 10 years.  There is no space for experimentation. Each village has land, and families return to the mountain's milpas after going to the city for work in between plantings. To raise corn is to live as a Maya.To understand the Maya is to understand their life in the mountains, their agriculture, the corn fields.  It is their source of life -- sacred places, fruits, spice, lumber, thatch, but corn is their food, their work, their religion in many ways.

2: The second episode begins in mid-July in Chican, 3 months into the filmmaker's  work filming the corn crop, and ends in early September at the time of harvest.  Smith talks about how he was initially interested in the archaelogical sites but then became interested in the living Maya. He noticed that while they are quite aware of the modern changes, they are ultimately a traditional people. They had a sense of mastery of living content with life and one another. The films are a quest to unravel the paradox of their happiness without the comforts of life that we tend to value. Here, Margarita's illness is putting the family into debt as she lives in Merida for her treatment. Margarita and two other sons are deaf. So it is interesting to note that the family is using traditional methods to pay for modern medicine. We see Reymundo working on the hammocks -- colorful woven pieces --that he will sell and give the money to the doctors. Margarita has to take a lot of pills and needs injections; however, Reymundo also uses a local healer for some of the ailments. We meet Margarita when Reymundo travels to a suburb of Merida, where Margarita is living with his sister. We see Reymundo looking for herbs outside of town to bring to the healer, who they will see in the morning. In the morning, Smith explains how the Yucatan plant and a European prayer from the healer are, what Reymundo perceives, as Margarita's last hope.

Collective labor, faina, begins his episode as members of the village come together to build a dance pavilion (from the money the village received for the film). The mayor, storekeepers, and village representatives, among others, are all swinging mallots to break up the rock.  The institution of faina is sustained and reinforced through conversation among the community tracking who is present working and who is absent -- 60 out of 66 attend for this project, but another project ,  a citrus orchard, suffers. The government engineer is helping the villagers develop this and already helped dig a well and and an irrigation pipe, (the engineer only speaks Spanish). The Maya work the land only in family groups, but this engineer is trying to organize a non-family centric collective.The people want to put a corn crop on the orchard land. The film shows the men negotiating: a collective of individuals will work the land that the entire village will benefit from, but how can they be sure all individuals will help? What if people don't come regularly? Will they benefit equally?  There is a suggestion to divide the plots so everyone will do equal work, but then reunite the land afterwards; however, the question remains how it will be ever be fair. The only solution seems to work for your family and to expect help from others only creates bad feelings. Later we see how the orchard was divided -- tradition used in novel instances.  The land divided into family parcels for the corn crop, but work with the engineers for survey is done collectively represented by four separate families -- surveying the land for 6000 tangerine and lime trees. Families become divided yet again because some family members have to work their milpa and cannot be doing both projects.  The irrigated fruit orchard might help the village, but it was organized without social regulations by the specific ecology of the village. The family agricultural group is the key to everyone's survival; the land is harsh and irregular; only within the family can they resolve the inequities. They will try new options but resist them if it threatens that which has sustained the Maya for centuries.


Rain ceremony in early September for the corn harvest-- 7 adult men attend and arrange the ceremony to Maya and Catholic gods to nudge the cyclical nature. The prayer is from the Catholic church, but the setting in nature and each member's harvest is represented in the offering; then, they extend communion drinking the corn water of sorts.  For the Maya, magic and religion are integrated and the people  -- fresh porridge and prayers 13 times saying 13 is customary, but there were 13 gods in ancient Maya tradition. In the morning, the chickens must drink a tree bark saying it's customary, but the ancient Maya used it as a purifying solution. Then the chickens are boiled (cooking done by men), and the women bring in corn dough to make tortillas. A paste of toasted squash seed goes between the layers of tortillas -- numbered to correspond to Christian apostles or members of the ceremony, but also the number of worlds worshipped by the ancient Maya. The tortillas are wrapped in banana leaves and then baked in the ground as bread. Then, the men distribute the bread. Each family gives an equal share of spices and candles to publicly reassure that all is being done fairly -- porridge, breads, chickens for the spirits to taste goes on the offering table. Members of the ceremony share the meal with other villagers as soon as the spirits have been fed to extend and emphasize its communion. Precise sharing -- nine buckets for nine families -- did not bring rain in the upcoming weeks, but regardless of the outcome, they had followed the ceremony precisely and their obligation to the tradition and the future had been fulfilled and reaffirmed their relationship with the spirit and village relationships.

3. In this third episode, it is early September. The specific ecology of the Yucatan asks for a strong tradition with little room for experimentation and dependent on truly significant relationships.. This episode explores two issues. Because the corn crop went in the ground a month late,  the crop could be stranded if the rainy season ends on time and is not thusly extended. This will impact the region. The other issue is particular to Don Reymundo's family because his daughter is living with family in Merida fighting a rather unfamiliar illness, causing his family deeper debt as time goes on.

The episode begins as one villager must go into last year's corn reserves for food because this year's harvest is 8 weeks away or more.  Santos 15, Bernadino 21, and Jose 26  prepare the corn. They talk about who they own and are marking out how much they must pay and to whom; are paying off their debt in corn.  ($5.50). Sometimes the corn from the milpa is used to buy seed for the next milpa planting, but here we see Reymundo taking a risk. He is using the money from the sale of corn to hire workers so that he can cut a double size milpa for next year to recoup this year's losses with a single harvest.

Audomaro, 13, and Romaldo, 10, do not help in the field  (they study and weave hammocks). Audomaro wants to go to Merida for school. Before Reymundo and his older sons (Jose, Bernadino, and Santos), begin to clear next year's milpa, he says a prayer on the land. The younger boys are not part of this tradition. We see this family begin the clearing. The new field is laid out in a grid of units, about 22 acres, before hiring workers who are paid by units they clear. The units are square, the milpa is square, and the earth and sky have four corners -- the four corners are part of the Maya's deliberate and orderly life. It seems to be less of religion and more about the spiritual life here. The communion, a corn milk, passes from man to spirit and back to man after they do the land survey.

They bring the hammocks to town to have the thread lady weigh the hammocks; she is making sure they used all the thread she gave them. We see her give Reymundo $17.50, but there is talk of her not having the full amount. It took the family about 450 hours to earn $26.00, which can be done at home and brings in cash without having to sell corn. When they go to Merida to see Margarita, Reymundo introduces hammock weaving to his family so that they have a new means of earning money. There is discussion about Audomaro and Romaldo going to school near Merida the following year, but they decide Audo will go in 8 days. A trip to Merida is about 80 hours of weaving or half a week's corn supply for the family.

For the fruit orchard, workers are being paid about fifty cents for each hole they dig (and don't have to leave home to make cash) -- sometimes they need dynamite to get through the rock.  It could take a day to dig one hole but about seven.Corn agriculture works around natural obstacles, but good orchard management requires regular distance between trees. Bernadino, Reymundo's son, is the only one from their family still in the orchard project. The paymasters came, about 3 weeks late, and we see how the workers had to speak up to get their proper pay and joke about interest on the payroll.

We hear that they owe 1500 to Merida and 1500 to Tex* and so they are using their own corn to fatten the pigs to then sell, hoping to settle the debt. The rain does come, but the corn is far from mature, and Reymundo is also committed to sending Audomaro and Romaldo to school. 

There is a sewing machine. We see Bernadino sewing his pants as they talk about Dino having to go to town for army drills.

4: In episode four, we hear about daily decisions that can radically alter the future generations. During the year they spent in the Yucatan, Smith was interested in tradition and change, specifically the father-son relationship.  While we think about development of individual potential, in Chican, the generations live by time-tested rules and tradition. That sameness is not stifling but enriching in their lives, so when Reymundo wanted to put his two youngest sons in school, it was an invitation to interrupt a way of life.

The episode begins when the two youngest boys leave Chican to go to Merida for school.Reymundo makes sure that the boys have the tools to continue their hammock weaving, and he brings a sack of corn to feed the kids while they live with their extended family. It does not take long, just a day or two, for Audo to change his mind about school. The realization that he "could not read" properly because of his Chican education and that the school supplies are costly certainly puts doubt in young Audo's mind about his future, but really seems that Audo's primary reason for wanting to return to Chican is because he is homesick. At one point, Smith offers to pay for the supplies to make things "easy," but is is clear from Audo's aunt that the decision about Audo's school (and money) must be a father-son decision. Instead, however, Reymundo sends his oldest son, Bernadino to speak for the family by going to Merida. Dino presents the social circumstances to Audo citing the "appearance" of Audo returning to Chican -- it will appear that Reymundo cannot pay for the supplies or it may appear that Audo can't learn. There is potential to disgrace the family, and the teachers and aunt in Merida also think it shows that the parent is giving into the child.

The documentary shows that Audo returns to Chican to "fell trees" with his father, but Romaldo also had to leave school in Merida, where he was quite content.  Audo;s father says that Audo has to experience the hard work on the milpa and consider the different paths. So Reymundo was willing to allow his two youngest sons a life quite different from his, from his tradition, but his sons were not ready for the change. However, because of the increasing debt, Bernadino and eventually the other boys had to go to Merida for work. In the end, the family continues their life as corn farmers, just as Reymundo took his son to the milpa to work, Bernadino is taking his son to clear the forest; however,  he is also connecting electricity to his home, and Agrifina bought a TV.

In the US, we often believe that change is better. However, much of the change in our lives is about moving away from our home and establishing new paths, which often leads to isolation. What the Maya have is a social system of interdependence that sustains their existence because there is a belonging.