Being and Becoming HumanA Maiz-based Ethos & Philosophy of Life

In Lak Ech

Panche Be

Hunab ku

MenK’ochilet p’iz Yaxche–baalche

As taught in MAS, highlighting the responsibility one assumes in learning these ethos or concepts.They are gleaned from the works of Maya scholar, Domingo Martinez Paredez. They include: Un Continente y Una Cultura, El Popul Vuh tiene Razon, Hunab Ku, Parapsicologia Maya, El Hombre y el Cosmos

Philosophical Foundation–What it means to be Human

In Lak Ech

Tu eres mi otro yo

You are my other self (me)

Panche Be

To seek the root of the truth

To find the truth in the root(s)

Hunab Ku All Part of Creation “Movement & Measure.” The name the Maya gave to the equivalence of the Supreme Being or the Grand Architect of the Universe. “The Great Mystery” (Martinez Paredez, 1970)

SER HUMANO

BEING/BECOMING HUMAN

NOT A COUNTERSTORY

UNIVERSAL QUEST/LONGING

NOT WHAT ONE PROFESSES, BUT HOW ONE LIVES ONE’S LIFE

MAS STRUGGLE IN TUCSON

(Outside of Western Civilization)

FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME

WHO ARE WE? WHO WE ARE

Un Continente Y Una Cultura

“This philosophy comes direct from “the cereal that was created by the ancient settlers of the continent: maiz… yes, the maiz, that creation of the savage beast, and that thanks to them, lies the hope for humanity.” – Maya Linguist, Domingo Martinez Paredez, 1960

Raza Studies (MAS):A subset of IndigenousStudies.Indigenous Studies:not a subset of Chicano Studies

MAS:Part of a thousands of years process culture, knowledge and history

Maiz: Who We Are – Where We Come From What we are made of – Our sacred sustenance

Maiz is civilizational impulse for Maya-Nahua (Mesoamerica) or Maiz cultureMesoamerican calendars based on maiz – developed entire continent

Maiz: The only food in

history created by human

beings.

Wild grass crossed with

Teocinte

Maiz:

Peoples of Cemanahuak are the only peoples to create their own food, thus, own philosophy.Requires human intervention

Concepts predate the Maya. Were shared by peoples across continent. Martinez-Paredez

Tamuanchanes OlmecasTeotihuacanos Toltecas

Undergirding all: 7,000-year maiz culture

While thousands of the ancient books were burned by Spanish priests, these Maya-Nahua concepts were not destroyed. They are preserved and conveyed today via ceremony, oral traditions,[Indigenous] writings poetry, song and danza.

3113 BC-2012 – Maya Time Frame – Era of Maiz

Hul Nal YeSpirit of Maiz

Mexican/Chicano/Chicana De-Indigenization & De-Colonization Narratives

Map of AztlanMigration narrative

1,000 years oldMexica Story

Popularized in U.S. 1960s-70s

MaizQuetzalcoatlNarrativeSeveral thousand years old. Story of continent.Preferred narrative for MAS-IndigenousIndigenous Studies

While the Maiz-Quetzalcoatl narrative is continental in scope, both equal an effort to be seen not as foreigners or U.S. minorities. The effort to understand In Lak Ech – Panche Be & Hunab Ku equal reclamation of a creation/resistance culture. Effort to embrace these concepts = de-colonization.

In Lak Ech– Panche Be – Hunab Ku

Concepts can create better human beings & a better world for generations that will follow

They connect us to cosmic energy, but also to struggles for peace, dignity & justice

At most profound level, these concepts – that we are all related and all one – exist in all cultures. All strive for teaching us to become better human beings and to take care of our sacred mother earth. (Nahuatl: Nehua ti Nehua). As adopted by Raza Studies in U.S. – Not Frozen Concepts

Zapatistas rose up Jan, 1, 1994 to protect way of life – maiz culture. 1st day that NAFTA went into effect

In Lak’ Ech Tú eres mi otro yo.

Si te hago daño a ti

Me hago daño a mí mismo.

Sí te amo y respeto.

Me amo y respeto yo

You are my other me.

If I do harm to you,

I do harm to myself.

If I love and respect you

I love and respect myself. Raza Studies-TUSD

In Lak‘ EchIf we poison the earth, we poison ourselves. If we pollute the waters, we pollute our bodies. If we contaminate the earth; we contaminate our food and life itself.

If we take care of the earth; the earth will take care of us. If we love the earth; we love ourselves. If we respect the earth; we live

If we love ourselves, we will take care of ourselves.

If we love humanity, we will not hate.

If we protect our sacred mother, we live.

If we understand our role in the universe, we create.

In Lak Ech is Beyond Human Relations It is also about relations with all life (left)

and our relation to the earth and universe (right)

Universal Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do onto you

Christianity ...You shall love your neighbor as yourself  Yahshua, Matthew 22:39

Bahai: Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, 71

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful   Udana-Varga, 5:18

Confucianism: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you   Analects 15:23

Hinduism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. Mahabharata 5:1517 

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself . Sunnab

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law: All the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Sikhism: Do not create enmity with anyone as God is within everyone 

Guru Arjan Devji 259. Guru Granth Sahib

In Lak’ Ech

A prescription for how to treat each other as human beings. Anti-thesis of dehumanization & first step toward rehumanization & viewing our fellow human beings not simply as neighbors, but as co-equals.

In Lak Ech: It is the love of others, the love of ourselves, the love of humanity, the love of life, the love of the universe; it is who we are

Mitakuye Oyasin: Lakota Sioux – Similar to In Lak Ech

Panche Be To seek the root of the truth – buscar la raiz de la verdad.

(Martinez Paredez 1970). To find the truth in the root(s)

Panche Be – a pursuit and a lifelong journey. Panche Be – a way of life. Never satisfied with official truths, official histories or official narratives.

Never complacent. Always in relentless pursuit of that which is hidden or obfuscated. Always in pursuit of peace and dignity… and justice.

journalism ethos:”don’t believe the hype” = critical thinking

Panche Be: Pursuit of Social Justice

Pursuit of the root of the truth

Pursuit of social justice

Indigenous /Human Liberation

Prism

Defense of Raza/Ethnic Studies 2006–2012 mas-tusd

Struggle against SB 1070-HB2281

The Forgotten Debate of 1524 To understand Hunab Ku, it should be contextualized within the 1524

theological “debate” between 12 Spanish friars & several indigenous representatives.

The most notable exchange had to do with whether the Indigenous representatives “knew God.” A friar explained: “He is the true one & whom you call ypalnemoani, but you never really knew him.”

(Sahagun, 1944: 67).

Sahagun, Colloquios y Doctrina Christiana, 1944

“The Giver of Life”In the colonial-era book Huehuetlahtolli (1991), Sahagun in 1500s explains that

Ipalnemoani is: “dador de la vida” - the giver of life: That for what we live for.

By those definitions, Ipalnemoani – the giver of life is The Creator of the Universe.

Maya scholar, Domingo Martinez Paredez, in Hunab Ku (1963: 41) connects Hunab Ku with Ipelnemohuani

After the “debate,” priests proclaimed that Indigenous peoples were pagan, godless & demonic. All 1500s-1800s era codices/chronicles reflect this thinking.

“Godless”: A Dark Ages Formulation Dark Ages formulation continues in modern times:

women prohibited from attending banquet due to Aztec dancers (Minnesota, 2007);

kid prohibited from learning maiz culture & Aztec dance: because told it’s “devil worship” (AZ, 2009).

all peoples and cultures have their own way of explaining the universe. The idea that people are godless is also a Dark Ages formulation.

QuetzalcoatlThrough Chicano Serpentine Philosophy, (2007), elder and

Nahuatl scholar Andres Segura explains Quetzalcoatl or the Feathered Serpent as the balance between the material and the spiritual. He expounds on this idea: “The feathered serpent represents the Unknowable, Unthinkable, Consciousness of the Giver of Life, The Giver of Time and Space, Ometeotl/Omecihuatl, God.

Es consciencia de Dios – He/She is the Consciousness of God” (Macias, 2007: 77).

Superstitious MindsEuropean friars were superstitious, championed ignorance, punished scientific inquiry. Were product of bloody Crusades and were participants in oppressive Inquisition, including book burnings.

Auto de Fe,

1562

Mani, Yucatan

Recreation of

Auto de Fe

Performed

Annually

At Mani, Yucatan

Psychic ShockRole of friars was providing a theological God-given

blessing. justification for enslavement, genocide & land theft.

Peoples humanity depended upon conversion: Even De Las Casas – ‘protector of the Indians’ believed this.

Euros in no position to understand:

In Lak Ech-Panche Be-Hunab Ku.

Proclaiming peoples: pagan-godless-demonic permits dehumanization - not afforded full human rights.

CREATES PSYCHIC SHOCK – DAMAGE TO PSYCHE

Martinez Paredez

Hunab Ku Hunab Ku is Grand Architect of the Universe & the Giver of Life; They mathematized this concept and declared it the ‘giver of movement and measure.’ (measure = death)

There were no statutes or images to Hunab Ku.

It was represented as a mathematical formula of a square (pyramid) inside of a circle. Parasicologia Maya, P25

‘the Maya represent this with a concept of the circle and a square. The circle is represented by the # 13, the square by the # 4. 13 represents points of the body.’

Hunab Ku, Nature, Humans, Numbers: all one. El Hombre y El Cosmos, P47

In West, God often depicted as elderly man sitting in chair or somewhere in heaven.The Maya conceived of Hunab Ku in mathematical, as opposed to, metaphysical terms. “Science was their religion and their religion was science,” regulated by mathematics and astronomy. (Martinez Paredez, 1970: 68)

Hunab KuBy most translations [limitations of European

languages], this explanation of universe is equivalence of God: How people explain or make sense of universe.

In English, also: “Supreme Being,” the “Great Spirit,” “Creator” or “The Great Mystery”

Hunab Ku In the Nahuatl or from the peoples of Anahuac, there are several equivalencies;

Tloque Nahuaque, Ypalmenohuani and Ometeotl. In explaining Hunab Ku, Dr. Arnoldo Vento writes In Amoxtli X:

“Unlike the Christian model, it is not anthropomorphic. It is a scientific concept of the building of the universe in geometric symbols and numbers that comprise the mathematical order of the universe. It is a square within a circle.”

(Vento, 2010, 8)

Reciprocity and Balance Vento, who has studied under great elders further

explains his understanding both the meaning and context of Hunab Ku and similar native understandings:

“It calls for cultures engaging in relationships of mutual respect, reciprocity, caring for Mother Earth and all of its inhabitants. It is integration and participation, not a modification of Mother Earth that provides a positive and life affirming view. There is no hierarchical ladder, only reciprocity and balance. Everything is part of a circular pattern of sacred give and take.” (Vento, Amoxtli X, 2010, 9)

Greek/Roman Gods

“The Supreme Being of the Maya unquestionably represented the dynamic energy of the cosmos, and the unity and totality that Hunab Ku represented, was cosmic” (Martinez Paredez 1970:59-60).

“Hunab Ku did not belong to them.” For the Maya, Hunab Ku belonged to everyone. Was not a Maya God. This is in contrast to those from ‘Old World.’ Witness the 1514 Requerimiento: If no Christians, land is European.