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Incantations: Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women

by Ambar Past

Incantations: Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

This book of poems and stark, vivid illustrations is rooted in the female soul of indigenous Mexico. The Tzotzil women of the Chiapas Highlands are the poets and the artists. Ambar Past, who collected the poems and drawings, includes a moving essay about their poetics, beliefs, and history.

In the 1970s, living among the Maya, Past watched the people endure as an epidemic swept through a village. No help came. Many children died. One mother offered her dead child a last sip of Coca-Cola and uttered a prayer:

Take this sweet dew from the earth, take this honey. It will help you on your way. It will give you strength on your path.

Incantations like this-poems about birth, love, hate, sex, despair, and death-coupled with primitive illustrations, provide a compelling insight into the psychology of these Mayan women poets. The Cinco Puntos edition of Incantationsis a facsimile of the original handmade edition produced by the Taller Leateros. It was reviewed in The New York Times.

At the age of twenty-three, Ambar Pastleft the United States for Mexico. She lived among the Mayan people, teaching the techniques of native dyes and learning to speak Tzotzil. She is the creator of the graphic arts collective Taller Leateros in Chiapas and was a founding member of Sna Jolobil, a weaving cooperative for Mayan artisans.

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About the Author

Poet Ambar Past immigrated to Mexico when she was 23. Thirty years ago she made her home in rural Chiapas and learned to speak Tzotzil Mayan. Since moving to Chiapas Ambar has worked to collect, record and translate Tzotzil ritual poetry. She published several anthologies of this poetry with Taller Leateros, a book cooperative in Chiapas.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781933693095
Subtitle:
Songs, Spells and Images by Mayan Women
Author:
Past, Ambar
With:
Bakbolom, Xalik Guzman
With:
Ernandes, Xpetra
Publisher:
Cinco Puntos Press
Subject:
Mexico
Subject:
Latin america
Subject:
American - Native American
Subject:
Tzotzil women.
Subject:
Latin America - General
Subject:
Women's Studies - General
Subject:
Caribbean & Latin American
Subject:
Anthologies (multiple authors)
Subject:
Tzotzil poetry
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
July 2009
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
229
Dimensions:
0.00 x 0.00 in
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