The Comadrona

While I was studying at the Mountain School, the local midwife (comadrona) came to speak to the students. I frantically scribbled notes while she spoke. As best as I can tell, this is what she told us...


“The first time it was because the real midwife was away. The man came running to my house and pounded on my door, begging for help. So I ran to his house and saw that his wife was in very bad shape. She was begging me to help and the husband was losing his mind. Of course the right answer was 'I can't, for heaven’s sake! I’ve never delivered a baby before!' But by that time the head of the baby was already coming and I couldn’t refuse to help.

“So, I just tried not to be afraid and did my best and then when the boy was out, I cut the cord with a knife.

“I suppose I’ve been a midwife now for almost 20 years. How many babies during that time? Oh, I would say between three and four hundred. I’ve lost count, honestly.

“Sometime I receive money for my work, and sometimes I don’t. Technically, I charge 150 quetzales [~ $18] for the whole process, including all the vitamins and nutrition and vaccine help I give and all the visits I make during the pregnancy. But a lot of times the family doesn’t have that kind of money so they don’t pay the full amount, if they pay at all.

“It drives me crazy when other family members are in the room during the birth. Especially the husbands who keep yelling at their wives to push every second. They always want to hurry the process. They can never figure out that the time for pushing will come and you just have to have patience.

“In the hospitals I think that they use other medicines, but out here we use herbs to speed the birth and ease the pain.

“Most of the women prefer to have their babies at home because it is more private, but when the birth is going to be very hard I make their husbands find a pickup to carry them to the hospital.

“Of course, sometimes you don’t know it’s going to be an emergency until it’s too late. One time I was helping a woman and the cord came out before the baby and I just knew it was wrapped around the baby's neck. So I held the cord in one hand with a towel soaked in warm water, while I reached inside with my other hand and finally moved the cord free. The boy was almost dead when he was born, but I massaged and exercised him for almost two hours until I knew he would survive.

“I knew some of those tricks just from experience and some were taught to me by medical officials. I have received a little bit of training from them, but not much because it costs too much for me to travel to the city for classes. And once they gave me some equipment, but that was nine years ago. Now I still have their scissors and forceps, but I have to buy the towels and gloves and sheets on my own.

“Other medical services? For this area, with about 20,000 people, we have 2 doctors (one is part time) and about 6 nurses.

“Before I was a midwife, I was often sick and in pain, but not anymore. We believe that when we are born, each person has a specific role to play. So my role is as a midwife and now that I’m doing that I feel very satisfied.

“My Grandma was the midwife at my birth and she always told me that I would be a midwife too, because I was born with tied hands - hands that were folded in front of my chest.

“And now I’m trying to find a girl to be my apprentice, but none of the girls want to do it. I think it’s because they’re afraid of the responsibility.”

The Popol Vuh - Part 1, Chapter 1

This is the account of how all was in suspense, all calm, in silence; all motionless, still, and the expanse of the sky was empty.

This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky.

The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky.


There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky.

There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed.

There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers,* were in the water surrounded with light.** They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and were therefore called Gucumatz. By nature they were great sages and great thinkers. In this manner the sky existed and also the heart of

Heaven, which is the name of God and thus He is called.

Then came the word. Tepeu and Gucumatz came together in the darkness, in the night, and Tepeu and Gucumatz talked together. They talked then, discussing and deliberating; they agreed, they united their words and their thoughts.

Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would break, man must appear. Then they planned the creation, and the growth of the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man. Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of Heaven who is called Huracán.

The first is called Caculhá Huracán. The second is ChipiCaculhá. The third is Raxa-Caculhá. And these three are the Heart of Heaven.

Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food and sustenance.

“Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done.” Thus they spoke. “Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed.” So they spoke.

Then the earth was created by them. So it was, in truth, that they created the earth. “Earth!” they said, and instantly it was made.

Like the mist, like a cloud, and like a cloud of dust was the creation, when the mountains appeared from the water; and instantly the mountains grew.

Only by a miracle, only by magic art were the mountains and valleys formed; and instantly the groves of cypresses and pines put forth shoots together on the surface of the earth.

And thus Gucumatz was filled with joy, and exclaimed: "Your coming has been fruitful, Heart of Heaven; and you, Huracán, and you, Chipi-Caculhá, Raxa-Caculhá!"

"Our work, our creation shall be finished," they answered.

First the earth was formed, the mountains and the valleys; the currents of water were divided, the rivulets were running freely between the hills, and the water was separated when the high mountains appeared.

Thus was the earth created, when it was formed by the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth, as they are called who first made it fruitful, when the sky was in suspense, and the earth was submerged in the water.

So it was that they made perfect the work, when they did it after thinking and meditating upon it.


Notes:

*E Alom, literally, those who conceive and give birth, e Qaholom, those who beget the children. In order to follow the conciseness of the text here the two terms are translated as the "Forefathers."

**They were in the water because the Quiché associated the name Gucumatz with the liquid element. Bishop Núñiez de la Vega says that Gucumatz is a serpent with feathers, which moves in the water. The Cakchiquel Manuscript says that one of the primitive peoples which migrated to Guatemala was called Gucumatz because their salvation was in the water.

The Popol Vuh - An Introduction

Over the next few weeks I'm going to be posting text from the Popol Vuh, which is, roughly speaking, the Mayan Bible. Or, at least, it's the Quiche version of the Mayan Bible. It contains several Mayan myths, including the granddaddy of them all: from whence we came.


Wikipedia offers this concise history of the text:

After the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, the usage of Maya script was forbidden and Latin alphabet was taught instead. However, some Maya priests and clerks clandestinely made copies of older hieroglyphic books, but using Latin letters, painting them on deerskin or fig bark and hiding them in the mountains. One of these was discovered about 1702 by a priest named Francisco Ximénez in the Guatemalan town of Chichicastenango, and rather than burning it Father Ximénez made a copy of it, and added a translation into Spanish. This copy found its way into a neglected corner of the Universidad de San Carlos library in Guatemala City, where it was discovered by Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg and Carl Scherzer in 1854. They published French and Spanish translations a few years later, the first of many translations that have kept the Popul Vuh in print ever since.

While there are lots of translations online, the one I'll be using comes courtesy of www.meta-religion.com. The site is thoroughly overwhelming, and a great find for anyone searching for a copy of, oh, say, the great Abenaki myth of Gluscabi and the Wind Eagle or perhaps the legend of How the Kangaroo Got a Long Tail, and the Wombat a Flat Forehead. And let's face it: we were all wondering how that came about.

The site also offers this summary of the Popol Vuh:

The Hero Twins of the Popol Vuh are Hunahpu and Xpalanque, the sons and nephew of two other ill-fated twins.

The story begins long before their illustrious appearance. It tells of the three other creations before this one. Each previous world was destroyed because of grave faults in their characters. The older twins, Hun-Hunahpu and Vucub Hunahpu, were ballplayers called down to Xibalba by the Lords of Death because they were making too much noise with their ball playing. The lords challenge the twins to a game which they have no intention of losing. They defeat the twins by cheating and then sacrifice them. One head was buried under the ball court and the other was hung from the calabash tree as a warning not to offend the Lords of Xibalba. The daughter of one of the lords is fascinated by this head on the tree and goes for a closer look. The head tells her to stretch out her hand and he spits into her palm, magically impregnating her. Learning of her condition, the lords order her sacrifice but she convinces the executioner to release her and she escapes to the Middle world where she seeks out her mother-in-law. After initial skepticism, the mother-in-law takes her in and she gives birth to the Hero Twins.

The twins do not know of their identity; instead they believe that they are farmers and after many adventures, they find out that they are ballplayers. They retrieve their father's gear which the grandmother had hidden and take up ball playing. Surely enough, they disturb the lords and are called to answer for their indiscretion, but unlike their ancestors, they outwit the lords. The first trial was to keep a torch and two cigars lit all night in the Dark House. They trick the lords by putting fire flies on the tips of the cigars and passing off a macaw tail as the flame of the torch. The following day the twins play ball against the lords and allow themselves to lose. That night, they have a second challenge and the following days and nights proceed similarly. Each task placed by the lords is won by trickery.

The final night, they are placed in the Bat House, filled with shrieking bats. They crawl into their blowguns to escape them and as morning comes, the bats quiet down. As Hunahpu peeks out the muzzle of his blowgun, a bat swoops down and beheads him. His head is the ball in the next ball game. Xpalanque recovers his brother's head by switching a squash carved to look like a head when it rolls into high grass. When the squash smashes on the ball court the Lords of Death are enraged to find out that they have been fooled once again. The lords decide to burn the Twins to death this time. Learning of this plan, the twins instruct two wise men to advise the lord on how to dispose their remains. The lords lure them to the stone pit and the twins are challenged to jump over the pit. Instead, the twins willingly jump in. The lords follow the seers' advice and grind the twins' bones and throw the powder into the river. After five days, they are resurrect with faces of catfish. On the sixth day, they take on their human head and begin to travel Xibalba as magical performers. The Lords of Death learn of their amazing skills and order a performance in their court.

The twins comply and enthrall the lords with decapitations and dismemberments of animals and themselves from which they recover whole. The anxious lords insist on becoming a part of the act and the twins willingly sacrifice them but do not bring them back to life. In this way the lords are defeated and hope is given to humankind. Any soul which is called to Xibalba has the hope of defeating death and becoming an ancestor.

Photos At Night

I love taking pictures when the moon is full. I wish I had the equipment (and know-how) to take pictures of the moon itself... especially when there is an eclipse like there was tonight. But until then, I'm quite happy taking pictures of the land using the moon's light. Here are two shots I took tonight, tweaked very slightly using iPhoto software. Click on them to see a bigger version.

The Rebuilding Effort

My friend just posted a really great story over on her blog, The Meaning of Wife.

She and her husband were down in Mississippi for a week as volunteers helping with the post-Katrina rebuilding effort. The had a lovely conversation with one local, Maggie. The link to her post is here.