Under the Fan in the Yucatan: "Kulcher" -- Gab and God (Language and Religion)

At one time all Mexicans aspired to be Spanish but not anymore.  Today's Yucatecans seem to take a great deal of pride in their Mayan heritage.  Many Yucatecan schools are now bilingual teaching both Mayan and Spanish.  We attended a special performance in Plaza Grande to mark the end of the annual month long celebration of Mayan culture and the Spanish MC's remarks were translated into Mayan and vice versa.  The world's fascination with all things Mayan has probably reinforced this ethnic pride.  I don't think they resent their dark complexions, however they still seem to prefer the more Spanish Caucasian features in their advertising and I'm sure the men in particular would like to be taller but the tiny Mayan stature must be a dominant gene.

[Which leads me to my popular tangent -- just how tall were the ancient Maya?  Mighty short if you go by many of their descendants.  In the sixteenth century when Spain first started riding roughshod over the Yucatecan residents, endeavoring to save their immortal souls as well as enslave and rob them, a Bishop Landa did his level best to eliminate everything pertaining to the Mayan belief system including burning all their written records, etc.  However, after he had managed to get rid of most everything he could find he had a change of heart, received a blow to the head or something and decided to record everything he knew about Mayan society and beliefs.  His account, An Account of the Things of Yucatan,  is available in most Yucatecan bookstores in a various languages.  Almost everything we know about the ancient Maya has been learned from his record.  Which leads me to my point -- he describes the Mayan men as "tall" and well built.  Was this a mistranslation?  Have they shrunk in the past five hundred years?  Were the Spanish even shorter?  Most perplexing!  Maybe the Bishop was burning more than feathers and artifacts.]

Back to language.  While modern Yucatecans appear to be very proud of their Mayan roots there are two things from Spain that they obviously treasure -- the Spanish language and the Roman Catholic faith. Merida, unlike the resort cities on the coasts, is a very unilingual town and the further one gets from downtown or "El Centro" the more unilingual it becomes.  When we venture up north to some of the big shopping malls, the clerks look obviously surprised when you speak to them in English.  You might as well try Martian.  Gringos don't surprise them but non-Spanish speaking ones do.  It is common to be at a place like the MELL (Merida English Language Library) talking to some lady from a place like Flin Flon and then she'll turn away and lay into perfect sounding Spanish to someone else.  If you live here, you speak Spanish. Period.  Locals love to teach ignorant gringos how to say a few words correctly.  We have been tutored by taxi drivers, store clerks, waiters, and even our "mene mene" man.

[Tangent two:  Many downtown blocks in Merida have an elderly man who earns a few pesos by helping you park your car ("mene mene" means "come on, come on" when someone is backing up), washing your car, helping you with your groceries, keeping your parking space if you're running out to the store for a minute and whatever else he can do for you.  They usually don't live on "their block" but it is definitely their territory and they put in full time hours.  Most carry a red rag and sit on a cinder block, pail or whatever they can find.   I have heard it said that this and the elderly ladies begging downtown tells you quite a bit about the Mexican old age pension plan.  Our "mene mene" is named Manuel.  (Many people never learn their man's name.) He is quite a character and loves to exchange pleasantries with us and teach us a little Spanish.]

Spanish seems to lend itself to oratory and Yucatecans seem to have turned it in to an art form.  Merida is famous for its weekly outdoor concerts, e.g. every Saturday night is a concert in our neighbourhood of Santa Ana, Thursday night is Santa Lucia and so on.  Every concert, public event, you name it has a Master of Ceremonies and can these guys talk!!!  They go on and on and on!  Rolling their "r's" and repeating the same words over and over.  Maybe it's worse because we don't know what he's saying 90 percent of the time but we have concluded that the language lends itself to verbosity like none other!  Filibustering is a way of life!  Give a Yucatecan a microphone at your peril!

The great long aristocratic Spanish names should have been a clue.  The lovely city of Santa Fe, New Mexico is actually "La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís".  And any Spanish aristocrat worth his salt always had at least five or six names.  Good ol' Hernan Cortez was born "Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro" and even a poor peasant like Pancho Villa was named "José Doroteo Arango Arámbula" by his parents.  Meridanos use all three plus names on their business cards.  Perhpas modern Merida is also somewhat like Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where there are so many people with the same two names you need to use a third or fourth just to clarify matters, e.g. John Angus MacIsaac and John Donald MacIsaac, Jorje Navarro Molina and Jorje Elonzo Molina?  Maybe but I think it is more a Spanish pride of ancestry thing which (unlike most of Europe) is often inclusive of the maternal heritage as well.

I purchased a Penguin Pocket Spanish Dictionary two years ago when we were in Santa Fe and it is proving to be very inadequate.  Seems only every second word we need isn't in there partly because what we really seem to want most of the time is food words and cooking terms.  I should have bought the Complete Eaters English-Spanish Dictionary or something.  We have had many a discussion over just what something is on the menu although often the waiters are very helpful.  Neil resorts quickly to pantomime and has acted out many a phrase to the bewilderment and occasional amusement of Yucatecan store employees and aforementioned wait staff.

Every neighbourhood or barrio has its old, beautiful and LARGE Catholic church adjacent the neighbourhood square or plaza.  Often these churches are within sight of each other!  Maybe ten blocks apart max.  And the sound of the various bells, especially on a Sunday, is quite magical.  Every single taxi, bus and collectivo driver of the dozens we have encountered (with the exception of two) has had a rosary hanging from his review mirror.  Many homes have small shrines by the front door and many Meridanos even cross themselves when they walk past a church.  All large homes and haciendas have a private chapel and I found it quite enchanting and amusing to see the statue of St. Geronimo in the tiny chapel of the Hacienda Yaxcopoil. He was sporting a tiny Panama Hat just like any other dapper Yucatecan.  (Our guide was not amused that I was amused.)

Pope John Paul II (or Juan Paulo Dos) visited the Yucatan in 1993.  The magnificent Merida Catedral de San Ildefonso proudly displays very large photos of him in prayer there and a nearby town, Izamal, where he conducted a special mass for indigenous people, still trades on that fame twenty years later.  Yucatecans (and perhaps all Mexicans?) like to have a mass for all special occasions including the Quinceanera or 15th birthday/debut parties for girls that are such a big part of the culture here.  Like all cathedrals there are various saint's shrines around the perimeter.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is a popular spot as is a special chapel where a crucifix that has survived two fires (Christ of the Blisters) is displayed.   I have also found it intriguing to watch the tiny Chiapan women street vendors passing through the cathedral wipe their faces on the robes of a black velvet clad Virgin at the entance.  She obviously has special resonance with them.

These folks are no religous light-weights and it is evident in their high regard for family and community, their generosity to the less fortunate and their hospitality.  They walk the talk.

While over 80 percent of Yucatecans are Roman Catholics there is also apparently a good number of Seventh Day Adventists and evangelical Protestants.  There is also a sprinkling of Mennonites that have migrated to Mexico from the north. (According to Wikipedia there are 90,0000 Mennonites in Mexico.)  They can often be spotted in WalMart (and on Sunday????).  There dress is more conservative and extreme than the Manitoba variety and their language sounds truly bizarre - a mixture of German and Spanish I presume.  Am leben de Mexico!