My research focuses on the indigenous cultures, languages and literatures of Latin America, particularly bilingual literatures in Maya, Quechua and Nahuatl alongside Spanish. In view of the fact that such cultures often have very different interpretative frameworks to the ‘Western’ academic tradition, I combine the perspectives of several disciplines in order to attain a holistic understanding, especially comparative literature, anthropology, linguistics, and philosophy, as well as scientific perspectives. Address: Departamento de Letras, Humanidades e Historia del Arte Universidad de las Américas Puebla Ex-Hacienda Sta. Catarina Mártir S/N San Andrés Cholula Puebla CP 72810 Mexico
Latin America is witnessing a revival in the literary production of indigenous languages, yet con... more Latin America is witnessing a revival in the literary production of indigenous languages, yet contemporary indigenous writers must often negotiate between different cultural understandings of what literature should be. The purpose of this article is to take one bilingual poem, composed in Yucatec Maya and Spanish, as a case study of the writerly conflict between the Maya paradigm of ts’íib and the ‘Western’ ideal of the letrado. The poem, written by Javier Abelardo Gómez Navarrete (1942–2018), is entitled ‘K’u’uk’um kaan’ in its Yucatec version and ‘Serpiente de regio plumaje’ in its version in Spanish. Through linguistic and hermeneutic analysis of key extracts, the article argues that Gómez Navarrete’s poem can be read as an exploration of what it means to be a Maya writer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in terms of the antagonistic yet mutually constitutive relationship between the categories of ts’íib and the letrado.
Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, a pioneering literary movement has taken root an... more Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, a pioneering literary movement has taken root and flourished in the Yucatan Peninsula of southeast Mexico. The Maya Literary Renaissance (MLR) is part of a wider Latin American endeavour to revitalise indigenous languages still spoken today. The MLR is also an ecologically inspired movement given its significant focus on the nonhuman environment. This article examines the ecological significance of Wildernain Villegas’ bilingual poem (Maya and Spanish), Yáax K’áak’/Fuego Primigenio [Primordial Fire]. By engaging the poem in dialogue with the philosophies of Michel Serres, Charles Sanders Peirce and Paul Ricoeur, the article makes two interconnected arguments: that Primordial Fire presents literature as a phenomenon that emerges from an underlying narratological potential in the universe, and that, while the poem presents a vision of human exceptionalism, it grounds this vision on our ability to de-centre ourselves by engaging with our more-than-human origins.
Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2019
This article discusses a contemporary Maya story about the relationship between humanity and maiz... more This article discusses a contemporary Maya story about the relationship between humanity and maize in the Yucatan Peninsula: José Manuel Tec Tun's, U tsikbalo’ob XNuk Nal / Los cuentos de la Abuela Mazorca [Tales of Old Mother Corn]. It argues that the story depicts a process that the recent biological field of biosemiotics terms “semiotic emergence” (Hoffmeyer): the evolution of higher stages of complexity through the interaction between previous levels. This argument is advanced through the lens of the Maya concept of óol or “existential growth” which displays close similarities with the concept of “final cause” as defined by the philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce, a major influence in biosemiotics. Through textual analysis of the Maya and Spanish versions, the article shows how Tec Tun's story depicts maize and humanity as mutually oriented towards nurturing each other in a relationship of “structural coupling” (Maturana and Varela): the co-constitution of habitat and inhabitant. This interaction results in the emergence of symbolism, a complex stage of semiotic emergence that can, at least partially, account for the central role of maize in human consciousness for Maya cosmology.
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 9/4, 2013
This article examines the performative role of waynu, a widespread song-genre in the Andes, in cr... more This article examines the performative role of waynu, a widespread song-genre in the Andes, in creating an “intersubjective community” among participants. The data-corpus comprises extracts from interviews which I conducted during a year’s period of fieldwork (2010–2011) in Chiquián and Pomabamba, Ancash department, Peru. I couple my analysis of the extracts with congruent concepts in Quechua, the Indigenous language, in order to show how Indigenous philosophical orientations can provide as robust an analytical framework as concepts in formal scholarship. I conclude by suggesting that the application of an intersubjective analytical framework to the study of verbal art can constitute a productive agenda for future research on Indigenous traditions.
This essay explores the concepts of “unity” and “difference” in Andean songs. The verses pertain ... more This essay explores the concepts of “unity” and “difference” in Andean songs. The verses pertain to the Masha ritual enacted annually in Mangas, central Peru, and combine Quechua (the indigenous language) with Spanish. Through detailed exegesis of the texts, this essay argues that, far from being irreconcilable, “unity” and “difference” are best understood as mutually informing since the recognition of difference opens up the parameters of potential exchange. This optic is informed by a worldview that emphasizes “relation” over “entities.”
The Maya Literary Renaissance is a growing yet little-known literary phenomenon that can redefine... more The Maya Literary Renaissance is a growing yet little-known literary phenomenon that can redefine our understanding of "literature" universally. By analyzing eight representative texts of this new and vibrant literary movement, the book argues that the texts present literature as a trans-species phenomenon that is not reducible only to human creativity. Based on detailed textual analysis of the literature in both Maya and Spanish as well as first-hand conversations with the writers themselves, the book develops the first conceptual map of how literature constantly emerges from wider creative patterns in nature. This process, defined as literary inhabitation, is explained by synthesizing core Maya cultural concepts with diverse philosophical, literary, anthropological and biological theories. In the context of the Yucatan Peninsula, where the texts come from, literary inhabitation is presented as an integral part of bioregional becoming, the evolution of the Peninsula as a constantly unfolding dialogue.
Latin America is witnessing a revival in the literary production of indigenous languages, yet con... more Latin America is witnessing a revival in the literary production of indigenous languages, yet contemporary indigenous writers must often negotiate between different cultural understandings of what literature should be. The purpose of this article is to take one bilingual poem, composed in Yucatec Maya and Spanish, as a case study of the writerly conflict between the Maya paradigm of ts’íib and the ‘Western’ ideal of the letrado. The poem, written by Javier Abelardo Gómez Navarrete (1942–2018), is entitled ‘K’u’uk’um kaan’ in its Yucatec version and ‘Serpiente de regio plumaje’ in its version in Spanish. Through linguistic and hermeneutic analysis of key extracts, the article argues that Gómez Navarrete’s poem can be read as an exploration of what it means to be a Maya writer in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in terms of the antagonistic yet mutually constitutive relationship between the categories of ts’íib and the letrado.
Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, a pioneering literary movement has taken root an... more Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, a pioneering literary movement has taken root and flourished in the Yucatan Peninsula of southeast Mexico. The Maya Literary Renaissance (MLR) is part of a wider Latin American endeavour to revitalise indigenous languages still spoken today. The MLR is also an ecologically inspired movement given its significant focus on the nonhuman environment. This article examines the ecological significance of Wildernain Villegas’ bilingual poem (Maya and Spanish), Yáax K’áak’/Fuego Primigenio [Primordial Fire]. By engaging the poem in dialogue with the philosophies of Michel Serres, Charles Sanders Peirce and Paul Ricoeur, the article makes two interconnected arguments: that Primordial Fire presents literature as a phenomenon that emerges from an underlying narratological potential in the universe, and that, while the poem presents a vision of human exceptionalism, it grounds this vision on our ability to de-centre ourselves by engaging with our more-than-human origins.
Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2019
This article discusses a contemporary Maya story about the relationship between humanity and maiz... more This article discusses a contemporary Maya story about the relationship between humanity and maize in the Yucatan Peninsula: José Manuel Tec Tun's, U tsikbalo’ob XNuk Nal / Los cuentos de la Abuela Mazorca [Tales of Old Mother Corn]. It argues that the story depicts a process that the recent biological field of biosemiotics terms “semiotic emergence” (Hoffmeyer): the evolution of higher stages of complexity through the interaction between previous levels. This argument is advanced through the lens of the Maya concept of óol or “existential growth” which displays close similarities with the concept of “final cause” as defined by the philosopher, Charles Sanders Peirce, a major influence in biosemiotics. Through textual analysis of the Maya and Spanish versions, the article shows how Tec Tun's story depicts maize and humanity as mutually oriented towards nurturing each other in a relationship of “structural coupling” (Maturana and Varela): the co-constitution of habitat and inhabitant. This interaction results in the emergence of symbolism, a complex stage of semiotic emergence that can, at least partially, account for the central role of maize in human consciousness for Maya cosmology.
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 9/4, 2013
This article examines the performative role of waynu, a widespread song-genre in the Andes, in cr... more This article examines the performative role of waynu, a widespread song-genre in the Andes, in creating an “intersubjective community” among participants. The data-corpus comprises extracts from interviews which I conducted during a year’s period of fieldwork (2010–2011) in Chiquián and Pomabamba, Ancash department, Peru. I couple my analysis of the extracts with congruent concepts in Quechua, the Indigenous language, in order to show how Indigenous philosophical orientations can provide as robust an analytical framework as concepts in formal scholarship. I conclude by suggesting that the application of an intersubjective analytical framework to the study of verbal art can constitute a productive agenda for future research on Indigenous traditions.
This essay explores the concepts of “unity” and “difference” in Andean songs. The verses pertain ... more This essay explores the concepts of “unity” and “difference” in Andean songs. The verses pertain to the Masha ritual enacted annually in Mangas, central Peru, and combine Quechua (the indigenous language) with Spanish. Through detailed exegesis of the texts, this essay argues that, far from being irreconcilable, “unity” and “difference” are best understood as mutually informing since the recognition of difference opens up the parameters of potential exchange. This optic is informed by a worldview that emphasizes “relation” over “entities.”
The Maya Literary Renaissance is a growing yet little-known literary phenomenon that can redefine... more The Maya Literary Renaissance is a growing yet little-known literary phenomenon that can redefine our understanding of "literature" universally. By analyzing eight representative texts of this new and vibrant literary movement, the book argues that the texts present literature as a trans-species phenomenon that is not reducible only to human creativity. Based on detailed textual analysis of the literature in both Maya and Spanish as well as first-hand conversations with the writers themselves, the book develops the first conceptual map of how literature constantly emerges from wider creative patterns in nature. This process, defined as literary inhabitation, is explained by synthesizing core Maya cultural concepts with diverse philosophical, literary, anthropological and biological theories. In the context of the Yucatan Peninsula, where the texts come from, literary inhabitation is presented as an integral part of bioregional becoming, the evolution of the Peninsula as a constantly unfolding dialogue.
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