The Musicians of Palin

Acrylic on cardboard, 16”x13” (40x32 cm).

Bands of native musicians travel from town to town trying to enliven the celebrations of a birthday, a marriage, a religious pilgrimage or a carnival. The musicians are warmly welcome. They are given food and lodging during the duration of the event. They play day and night whenever music is requested by the hosts. Musicians and onlookers, drunk with cheap liquor, dance to the high pitch sound of local instruments, until they all pass out and fall to the ground like dead flies. They eventually wake up and continue with the party. Music is like an antidote being used to help forget life’s miseries and hardships.

The Women of Nebaj

Acrylic on cardboard, 16”x13” (40x32 cm)

Pretty India women, who between songs and smiles march towards their dwellings carrying water the precious liquid, wearing colorful dresses, they walk long distances barefoot, carrying their children on their backs resembling a group of busy ants. They march on cobble stoned streets, listening to the songs of multicolored birds. The sounds of the wind shaking the branches of fruit trees produce the effect of a true nature’s symphony. The sun combs the drizzle of the spring dusk. The green freshness of the countryside and the yellow seasoning of corn fields announce that the day is about to end, and thus, another day will pass in the humble life of the Nebaj women.

The Teclenos

Acrylic on cardboard, 15”x14” (37x35 cm)

The aroma of coffee flowers announces the proximity of harvest time. Soon farmers of many regions will load their carts with food and basic utensils to make the long trip to the richest coffee growing areas. Great caravans will march on dirt roads and stone paved streets resembling a rainbow in the distance with their multicolored garments characteristics of their home regions. They leave their own subsistence plots behind and only sell as many animals as they need to cover their trip expenses, a long journey awaits them. The cart’s sounds resound like thunder in the sky, as they are driven in the direction of promises and hopes.

The street vendors of Auachapan

Acrylic on cardboard, 16”x13” (40x32 cm)

It is market day! And the village is dressed with plenty of joy! People come and go everywhere. Women street vendors shout here and there advertising their wares. Some sell fruits, fabrics, sandals, emeralds, gold dust, quetzal feathers, bracelets made of white cane, honey, green and red chili peppers, salt, coffee and jaguar skins. Others sell flowers of many colors. It is noisy and dusty but this does not take away any of the charm of these women that use ingenious lines to announce their products. Cacao, the vegetal currency changes hands silently. How wonderful is my hometown, whose culture and traditions is being lost and today it tries to live the last days of its existence

Mud Skin

Acrylic on cardboard, 16”x13” (40x32 cm)

How proud looking are native women with their long multicolored decorated veils and their silk or cotton laces that adorn their long black hair. Do they come from Chchicastenngo or is it from Sonsonete? Their provenance does not really matter, what counts is that all of them are pretty, loyal and very devoted to their god. They work hard washing clothes in the river or cooking. There is no time to rest in the countryside farms of my village.

Transition of the Time

Acrylic on cardboard, 13”x16” (32x40 cm)

The number that fell on certain day determined the height of a structure under construction just as the number that fell on the date of birth of each individual determined everything about his life. The Mayans felt the power of the numbers and they assigned philosophical values to them. For Mayans, the numbers were a means to explain what it was not possible to express in other ways such as the mysteries of life and death

The cross of Na-Chan-Caan

Acrylic on cardboard, 20”x8” (30x20 cm)

Na-chan-caan means house of the celestial serpent. The feathered serpent known as Kukulcan was the central deity in the Maya religion. They also worshiped a cross that they called Quiauhtzteotlchicahualizteotl also known as Tonacaquahuitl considered as the god of rain and health and source of life. Kukulcan was also known as Huemac to whom great virtues were attributed and taught by words and deeds the path of virtue that allow men to avoid vices and sins.

The War Dance

Acrylic on cardboard, 11”x5” (27x19 cm)

The warriors shot arrows into their victims taking care of not inflicting mortal wounds so as to prolong their agony and heir own celebration after the battle. The warriors paraded into town wearing hats adorned with feathers of multiple colors and harassing their prisoners who they tied to mango trees. There I see my son! there! there! shouted their mothers with tearful eyes. There! Is the owner of my heart shouted a young woman, there with the gold mask and the feathers of kukul. Mothers found their children because they knew their masks and the young women their men because the guards described their dresses to them.

Maya Prince

Acrylic on cardboard, 5”x8” (13x20 cm)

A manuscript written in quiche, the Mayan language, in 1554 by their descendants and translated to Spanish by Dionisio Jose Chonay sheds some light on the origin of the Maya people. It says that the three main tribes were descendants of the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel that Shalmaneser king of Assyria maintained in captivity. And that they decided to emigrate and it is how these three tribes came into being. The Indians signed the document on September 28, 1554 sealing it with this words “We have written this by tradition of our ancestors, who arrived across the sea of Givan-Tulan”.

God of the forest

Acrylic on canvas, 9”x12” (22x31 cm)

Winter rotted the wood with which these men built their cities in the mountains covered by the green of lush vegetation. The inhabitants looking to frighten their enemies learned to puff up their heads with elaborated hairdos, to flatten their foreheads with boards of copinol, to paint their faces with woods of gold rind, to speak with the animals, to observe the stars and to coexist with the mother forest. Great temples and palaces were built and powerful were their kingdoms which were harmoniously governed

Votan Balún

Acrylic on canvas, 9”x12” (22x31 cm)

Votan is deemed to be the founder of the Xibalba Empire. He came to America and proceeded to name all cities and towns of the Mayan empire. According to Ordóñez Núñez and the natives he came into contact with, The Chivims were hivites descendant of Heth who was in turn son of Chaanan and grandson of Noeh. The hivites were expelled from Geth by the philistines some years back when the Hebrews left Egypt. A leader of the tribe called Cadmus who some say was the son of Ogyges and lived in Mount Hermon was assassinated by Moses during the exodus in 1447 a.c. and his tribe was expelled by the Hebrews, they conquered Sidon and eventually founded Tyre from where Votan departed for Central America.

Quautemoc

Acrylic on cardboard, 11”x8” (27x21 cm)

Quatemoc was a great military leader, a man of justice and valor. God delighted in him and manipulated him as though he were a flute through which he spoke to his earthly subjects. Quatemoc was also a great astronomer and used this science to combat his enemies. He was also a good philosopher and artist. Quatemoc venerated his ancestors who he said came from a far away land called Aztlan, a land of many mountains and crystalline rivers populated by animals and birds of every species where the gods inhabited beautiful palaces with magnificent gardens.

The Robot

The feathered serpent

The Prediction

The Maya Warrior

The Fisherman

The Tortilla maker

Composition of colors #1

Composition of colors #2