Ma'alob K'iin!: July 2009

Our last week before we scattered for our long weekend was kind of difficult. So we've been suggesting to our teachers that we get out of the classroom and walk around town more. It gives us an opportunity to ask questions in Maya and have short conversations. And we get to see fun stuff! For example, last Tuesday we went to the small museum that is attached to the church. Santa Elena's claim to fame is that they have these four mummies that were found under the church floor during renovations 10 years ago. They actually found around 9 burials total, but only four had become actually mummified. As you can see from the picture I posted last week, the church is built on top of an outcropping of bedrock, so it was pretty dry under the floor. These four kids, ages infant to seven, are still in their little coffins, wearing clothes and precious little hats, in a barely climate controlled case. They are sort of partially mummified, but it looked awfully humid in the case so they may not be mummies for much longer! (I don't have any pictures because the lighting was harsh and they didn't turn out.)

The interesting thing about these mummies is that they are not Maya, they are most likely German immigrants who moved into the area in the late nineteenth century. To gloss over decades of Mexican history..... starting in 1847 there was a Caste War in Yucatan in which Maya people revolted against the Mexican Government. It took the government until after 1901 to fully subdue Maya strongholds in southern Quintana Roo. At one point in the midst of the rebellion, the government financed immigration by groups of Germans, giving them tracks of land arching across the peninsula as a sort of buffer between the Mexican cities of Valladolid and Merida and the rebellious Maya to the south. Some of these Germans came to Santa Elena, and that's probably how these mummified children came to be under the church. Though it was an interesting exhibit, mummified children are at the same time both depressing and profoundly creepy.

On a lighter note, after the mummies we went and visited Don Hernan and his wife Arcadia. They welcome visitors into their home to talk about traditional Maya household tasks, like cooking, building houses, and keeping traditional gardens. The following pictures are from their place.