I'll begin today's blog entry with the "Quote of the Day" provided by one of our informative lecturers, Chip (William) Morris, Jr.: "Can you imagine members of the U. S. Army dressing up as pregnant, lactating jaguars? That's what the Maya did." Before I go into detail about how we ended up discussing pregnant, lactating jaguars, I'll give some intriguing back story. If (when?) you read the entry for July 9th, you'll notice a "What I learned" statement involving NOT looking at the napkin drawings of strangers at bars. I need to inform you, dedicated readers, that the "stranger" in question may have been the very Chip quoted above. We may never discover whether he was truly the stranger whose napkins were perused, but we do know that he was at Cafe Revolucion last night at the same time as some of our more inquisitive Fulbrighters (who will remain nameless).
Today we visited the Na Bolom Research Center in San Cristobal de las Casas where we were treated to insiders' views of Pre-Columbian Art and its connections to today's textiles, Indigenous Traditions and Migration, and the Zapatista Movement (all this while Jorge was getting our rooms re-organized at our hotel--thanks, Jorge!). One of our insiders came to Chiapas on a Fulbright & never left--she's been here for 30 years. (Friends & family members, I'll be sure to alert you if anyone on our trip is making plans for staying here!) In our first lecture, Janet Schwartz & Chip Morris talked through their extensive photo essays on the most recent findings at local ruins (included Tonina, Bonapak, and the previously visited Palenque). Key question: what came first, glyphs or textiles (and weaving)? Chip said, "Weaving came from the beginning of the world" and showed evidence of kings wearing textiles in reliefs that pre-date Mayan glyphs.
Janet and Luis Morales (of the University of Intercultural Studies in Chiapas) discussed the effects of migration on residents from San Juan Chamula and Tenejapa. Finally, Janet (a journalist for such rags as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times) showed her photos of the Zapatista Movement since 1970, culminating with where the movement is going today.
After a substantial lunch provided at Na Bolom, Chip gave us a brief tour of the center which was founded by Frans and Trudi Blom. Trudi was quite the clothes horse (no relation to me) and had a 2-story closet; Frans was better at finding ruins than oil (he originally came to Mexico to find the latter). It was at this point in the tour that we learned about Mayan tactics for defeating neighboring tribes (which included dressing up as the aforementioned jaguars).
Finally, we cabbed our way to the Centro de Medicina Maya where we learned about herbs, midwifery, and the practices of those who practice Mayan medicine. (We also learned why not to drink Coca-Cola, which seems to have little to do with Mayan medicine....) After that, the night was ours to peruse strangers' napkin drawings or go out for a great dinner.
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