One morning, when Ana went to pick beans in her parent's milpa, she heard a loud noise...
Papa spoke politely to the driver of the bulldozer, asking him to please stop destroying their farm.
Introducing a new feature comic from Gonzo Comix. Ana and the Calabash was created by Rebecca Migdal for the Julian Cho Society of Toledo District, Belize.
The Lord of Xibalba chases Ana, trying to get back the magic Calabash Head.
Gonzos Andy and Rebecca are going on the road, as an opening act for Seth Tobocman’s “Disaster and Resistance” book tour. Music by Steve Wishnia and Eric Blitz of the IED’s, with Andy on winds. Art by Seth Tobocman and Rebecca Migdal, and video too! It’s going to be great! Here’s where you can catch the show in September:
Friday Sept. 26 7 pm
Wooden Shoe Books, 508 S. 5th St., Philadelphia
Saturday Sept 27, 3 pm
Baltimore Book Fair, Radical Book Fair Tent
Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of North Charles Street;
Monument Circle-West
Sunday Sept. 28, 6 pm
Chop Suey Books 1317 W. Cary St. Richmond, VA 23220
We’ve heard that the Maya are opposed in their land rights battle by the many other ethnic groups in Belize, since supposedly offering communal tenancy in the Toledo rainforest means that non-Maya would be denied the right to equal opportunity of utilizing that land via leasing it from the government. However in this article from the newspaper Amandala, the basis for mutual aid among the various Belizean ethnicities is drawn based on a common history of European oppression.
A captive swoons at the feet of the ruler Chaan Muan in this mural from Bonampak, Chiapas
During our jaunt to Belize we ventured into the Peten region of Guatemala, where we witnessed the soaring monuments of Tikal. On our way back to our hotel, we purchased a soaring pile of books, two of which I’ll review here.
Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period
by Dorie Reents-Budet; Duke University Press
Pre-Columbian Painting: Murals of the Mesoamerica
by Beatriz de la Fuente, Tatiana Falcón, Maria Elena Ruiz Gallut, Felipe Solis, Leticia Staines Cicero, Maria Teresa Uriarte, under the auspices of Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, UNAM and Consejo Nacional para la Cultura ya las artes; 1999, Editoriale Jaca Book Spa. Milan
Cylindrical vase depicting a lady encircled by a snake
Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period
by Dorie Reents-Budet; Duke University Press
This is a delicious book that ought to be on the shelf of any lover of pre-Columbian art, or of comics, fashion, spirituality or history. If you’re like me, you’ll open its pages again and again, just to feast your eyes on the lavish photographs. Exquisitely drawn, ornate costumes and outrageous mythical beasts make for fascinating art. However, as you delve deeper into the material the sacrificial rites, and tributary gifts of enema pots or penis perforators, might freak you out a little. Still, if you’re like me, you’ll want to understand more about the colorful, if grim, spiritual practices depicted on the pottery.
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“…It is not the view of the government that that judgment applies to all the villages….the first case…was not vigorously argued by the Government’s side….When next this matter comes to court it is going to be vigorously argued.”
Belize Attorney General Wilfred Elrington, June 13, 2008
“…The people of Golden Stream have customary rights to these lands, and the fact that the government has never recognized or respected our rights to this land, and therefore never granted any legal title to those lands to these people, should not cost them their right to those lands.”
Cristina Coc, Maya Leader, Executive Director of the Julian Cho Society, Belize, June 13, 2008
These excerpts are from a radio program on Belize Love FM radio, transcribed here.
Melissa Coc of Blue Creek, Toledo District plays with her pet parrot.
The Maya of Toledo remain at risk. Their farms are being bulldozed, in the village of Golden Stream and elsewhere, by government-sanctioned developers. Indigenous rights are being eroded; meanwhile the Kuwaiti-sponsored roads that will facilitate oil drilling in the region will be completed within the year. Most residents of the area have accepted the assurances of the government that environmental impact studies are enough to insure that the destruction of agricultural and natural resources just won’t happen, and that oil development will bring prosperity to the local economy. If only this were true! Similar cases throughout the world, from Nigeria to Ecuador, have invariably been launched with the same credulous enthusiasm. The results have not been economic security for local communities, nor the careful protection of the environment. Instead, there have been the inevitable land grabs and corruption, the theft of resources and the disempowerment of local voices. If the Maya leaders’ voices are not heard and respected, outsiders will profit while indigenous communities are forced to subsist in toxic wastelands.
The delicate loveliness of the coastal reefs and rainforests here are fragile ecosystems. Their beauty alone gives them intrinsic value, while they harbor rare and endangered species of wildlife, and provide a livelihood for the equally rare and endangered human communities that live sustainably among them. In addition, the potential value of the medicinal herbs and the historical archaeological sites that are still being discovered and explored, is unfathomably rich. And finally, so long as tourism is the primary legitimate economic engine in Belize, the choice to place at risk the natural resources that sustain the tourist trade is a shortsighted one, and can only be explained as self-interest in the short term, by those in power and by those who hope in vain to benefit.
Stay tuned for a more detailed narrative of this important struggle for indigenous rights and the environment in Belize.
I just can’t stop! 
The ancient Maya calendar predicts the end of days in 2012. Today the rainforest in Southern Belize, where the Maya still live according to their old ways, is threatened by logging, oil development and more.
Gonzo Tours’ Andy Laties and Rebecca Migdal present a short video featuring Christine Halverson of The Rainforest Foundation, Chet Schmidt of Nature’s Way, Reyes Chun of the Toledo Ecotourism Association, and Elvira Logan, a Maya archaeologist.
