Notes on Maya

We have noted that the names for people and places in the land of the Maya are not all Mayan. In fact the people of the land of the Maya are not now nor have the ever been all Maya.

Still the faces seen there now look Mayan. The cultural remnants found in, say, the Yucatan peninsula are strongly Maya, and they are many.

Ancient gods and rites persist. Hach Chac Yum, Akyantho, Usukum, Kakich and other gods are remembered. Pilgrimages are still made. Offerings are often. Copal is still burnt. Prayers are made and purification carried out.


The Mexican state of Tabasco can be a good place to start a visit to the land of the Maya. In the region of Chontalpa(Putun-Maya) is the town of Cardenas. If you want to see ruins, Comalcaco is not far from Cardenas.

Comalcaco is of interest to some as a place of debunking. as a student you may have heard that Arabs brought bricks to the Spaniards, and that the Spaniards brought them to the Maya. At Comaclco are found pre-Colombian son-backed bricks of clay. Stucco made of oyster and other shells was used for ornamation and for covering those bricks.

From Cardenas you might drive to Villahermosa and then on to Palenque in Chiapas. I don't mean to turn this history essay into a travelogue, but they do often seem to go together. As for history, La Venta Park, may be a good place to meet the Olmec, the Maya's predecessors. I stop here to allow you to remember what you will of incomparable Palenque.