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MOTHERFATHERS

The Maya Quiche shamans


The most important office among the Quiché Maya is that of Maya priest or chuchkajau (mother-father). He possesses powers and is the mediator between the believers and the gods. He performs special rites, indicates the appropriate days for sowing and harvesting. He has a deep knowledge of the human being and his multiple possibilities, through the system of nahuales, which is both mathematical and metaphysical. He can be male or female and his vocation is determined from birth.

The sacred rites of the Mayan culture have faced throughout history various types of persecution, always fierce: annihilation by the Spanish conquest, imposition by the Catholic Church, demonization by the Evangelical Church, prohibition by the guerrillas. And, even so, they have survived with all their content and deep symbolism, thanks to the conviction and persistence of their knowledgeable people. In the last two decades, despite the insistence of hostile forces, the sacred fire rites and Mayan ceremonies have become public again and are performed both in sacred archaeological and traditional sites, and in front of Christian temples, in a syncretic way, but preserving the potency of the ancestral content. 

The series was performed in the town of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. All mother-fathers who were performing their ceremonies publicly. 

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