To the editors:
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I didn’t read the original Globe and Mail story, but I have been to the (fairly well-touristed) town in question, and to me Shepherd’s treatment of this material does seem sufficiently misleading as to warrant a slightly fuller description of the religion of the Tzotzil Maya of San Juan Chamula (a mountain village just a few kilometers outside the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas). As with so many of the Mayan regions of southern Mexico and Central America, the religious practices there still reflect how the locals, “converted” to Christianity by 16th-century Spanish missionaries, cast aside most–but not all–of their old gods, and went on to apply the old Mayan rituals toward worship of the new Roman Catholic saints. The result was a hybrid religion–nominally Catholic, though unrecognized as such by the Vatican–in which the saints coexist with certain Mayan deities, with the Sun supreme over all.
The church of Chamula was built by the Spanish and later taken over by the Chamulans themselves, who did away with pews, priests, and masses. It’s open 24 hours a day so that the faithful can drop by any time they feel the need to visit a saint–whether to ask a favor, seek advice, or give thanks. The central spot under the apse is occupied by the statue of Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of the town, with the crucified Jesus hung in a subordinate position at his right. Along the walls on either side of the church stand effigies of other saints, festooned with little mirrors and necklaces of fruit and flowers. Individuals, couples, and whole families huddle on the floor, lighting hundreds of candles and singing repetitive hypnotic chants to the saints amid the heavy, sweet smell of pine branches and copal incense. Traditional healing ceremonies also take place there. The Chamulans take their religion extremely seriously and treat outsiders with suspicion. If they catch you taking photographs inside their church, expect to spend some time in jail.
Renaldo Migaldi
