Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Maya Community Profiles

Alma, Alberto, Judy and Maria live in the Bay Area and are of Mayan heritage from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. In Yucatan, more than 30 percent of the population speak Mayan and most indigenous people and their descendants are of Mayan ethnicity. There isn’t a formal census of Mayan people in the Bay Area but it is thought there are around 15,000 Mayans in San Francisco, another 15,000 in Marin, and approximately 1,500 in El Granada.

Yucatan has 106 municipalities most with Mayan names. San Francisco and the Bay Area have Mayans who are from two main municipalities Peto and Oxkutzcab. Mayans who live in San Rafael and Santa Rosa are usually from Peto and Mayans who live in San Francisco are from Oxkutzcab. Peto means moon’s shine or moon’s crown, and Oxkutzcab means “place of the three wild turkeys.

Alma Pech, 39, was born and raised in Peto and used to be an accountant there. Ten years ago she moved to San Anselmo to join her sister who was already living there. Now she works as part-time babysitter while taking care of her eight-year-old daughter Valeria. Her husband Gilberto works two jobs as a busboy. They both speak Mayan and Spanish to Valeria who, now in third grade, speaks the two languages in addition to English. Pech feels bad because not speaking English stops her from helping Valeria with homework.

Pech loves dancing, the Jarana music because it is a reminder of her Mayan culture. In 2003 she decided to form in San Rafael the Chan Kahal dance group, that means small town, to keep her Mayan roots alive and to teach her daughter about their traditions. Chan Kahal means small town.

When she lived in Peto Pech couldn’t afford to own the dancing costume called Terno that normally costs about $700. Now she buys the embroidered pieces, the most expensive part of the outfit, and she sews the whole outfit to save money. She owns several Ternos in different colors. Her dancing group members are all Mayan and their work is volunteered.

Alberto Perez, 36, was born in Oxkutzcab but as a little boy he and his family moved to Mexico City. Even though at home they lived the ways of the Mayan culture, Perez was not encouraged to speak Mayan. He remembers hearing from his dad, “I don’t want you to suffer the way I did for speaking Mayan.” Unfortunately regardless of its Mayan population in Yucatan, Mayero is a derogatory name for those who speak Mayan.

In spite of not speaking Mayan, Perez’ Spanish was mixed with Mayan words that got him in trouble at school. At age 6 when he started first grade his Spanish-speaking teacher did not understand him when Perez used words like sabucan instead of bag or xanap instead of shoe. Even with the discrimination related to speaking Maya Perez said, “My dad is a Yucatecan orthodox,” who, even though he has lived 30 years in Mexico City, has not changed his Mayan traditions. In Mexico City Perez met his wife Noemi, an American, and after a couple of years they moved to San Francisco. In 2002 Perez and a handful of friends decided to form Asociacion Mayab as a response to help Yucatecan people in Mexico after Hurricane Isidoro devastated the area; as well as to help with the paper work to bring a dead friend to Mexico. Everyone in the group is a volunteer.

Judy Cocom, 32, grew up speaking only Mayan. It was in elementary school where she learned Spanish. She was very poor. At 6-years-old, along with her younger sister and her mom, she used to work the fields cultivating oranges and tangerines while her dad Carlos worked and lived most of the time in the U.S. The first time Cocom met her dad she was 6, the second time she was 15 and the third one at 18, she was already a mom. “My mom was mom and dad for us,” she said.

Thirteen years ago her mom and her sister moved to San Francisco to join her dad. Ten years later she and her family decided to move in. “Sometimes people change and they don’t want to know anything about their culture,” she said. But to her dancing is keeping her memories and her culture alive. As a little girl she learned how to dance by watching her cousin. Now in San Francisco she is part of the Asociacion Mayab dance group that performs during festivals and special occasions. A year ago Cocom became a widow. Her husband Carlos Canul, 33, who used to dance with her, had a heart attack while working in a construction site. To support herself and her 13-year-old son Carlos, she works in a laundromat every day resting every Sunday afternoon. Her son Carlos now in 8th grade, speaks English, Spanish and Mayan. “He is proud to be Yucatecan,” said Cocom.

In limited Spanish Maria Cocom, 56, said “I’m a healer.” She grew up speaking Mayan. Cocom doesn’t know how to read and she learned Spanish at age 13. In Oxkutzcab she worked in the fields harvesting oranges, “We used to live in so much poverty,” Cocom said, “We worked like men.” Her grandmother was a doula. From her she learned how to massage pregnant women to avoid miscarriage by a dangerous breech birth. She learned how to use herbs to cure sore throats and stomachaches. On her own she learned how to heal bone injuries by massaging them and putting them back into place.

In San Francisco she lives in a small room with her husband Carlos but she is happier here than in Oxkutzcab, her life is better. She works part-time as a babysitter and sometimes as a healer helping not only Latino people but also some Indian and Americans.


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