Bezaleel – Who are You?
Posted August 6th, 2008 by Galen LehmanBezaleel means “under the shadow of God” and is the name of a school in Guatemala where Galen Lehman did volunteer work in July, 2008. #3 in a series of posts on what he learned there.
Most of the time I was in Guatemala, we were working members of the K’ekchi’ “culture group”. In North American terms, I suppose you would say they are the “K’ekchi’ Indians.”
They are direct descendants of the Maya, and have a strong and proud tradition. One of the most entertaining times we had was meeting with a K’ekchi’ elder, told us some of their legends.
According to tribal myths, corn was the food of the gods. One day, a mouse stole some seeds and hid them in his hole. A fox dug up the seed and ate it. When he excreted the kernels, they grew and flourished (fertilized, as they were, by the fox’s dung). That is their version of how corn came from heaven down to earth and how the Maya found it. To this day, corn is a mainstay of K’ekchi’ diet. We had corn tortillas at every meal.
One of their traditional gods is the moon, whose changing phases were integrated into their calendar. We learned that tortillas are round and white, and baked on a round stone, as a reminder of “Mother Luna”.
To us, those traditions seem silly. And, as the elder told us the stories, he laughed and winked as if we were sharing a good joke. It seemed that even he recognized that they no longer held value for his people in today’s world.
But, outmoded or not, traditions define who we are. Our connection to the past gives us security and a strong foundation in a world of shifting values. The K’ekchi family I stayed with (shown here) most assuredly did not believe the old Mayan god myths. But, they still made round corn tortillas at every meal on a round stone over an open fire, just the way they had been made for the last 2000 years.
Our host family had a traditional home made of wooden slats. There were no windows, but light streamed in through cracks between the boards. The floor was dirt. The roof was corrugated tin. Corn was planted on every square foot of land. A single faucet in front of the home provided running water. The bathroom was a latrine in the cornfield.
Within the last 10 years, they had gotten two things that dramatically changed their lifestyle:
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