The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive

by PRECHTEL, MARTÍN

• ISBN13: 9781583943601
• ISBN10: 1583943609
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-31
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Summary

Mart n Prechtel’s experiences growing up on a Pueblo Indian reservation, his years of apprenticing to a Guatemalan shaman, and his flight from Guatemala’s brutal civil war inform this lyrical blend of memoir, cultural mythology, and spiritual call to arms. The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquicis both an epic story and a cry to the heart of humanity based on the author’s realization that human survival depends on keeping alive the seeds of our “original forgotten spiritual excellence.” Prechtel relates the current eco-crisis to the rapid disappearance of biodiversity, indigenous cultures, and shared human values. He demonstrates how real human culture is exterminated when real (not genetically modified) seeds are lost. Like plants that become extinct once their required conditions are no longer met, authentic, unmonetized human cultures can no longer survive in the modern world. To “keep the seeds alive”-both literally and metaphorically-they must be planted, harvested, and replanted, just as human culture must become truly engaging and meaningful to the soul, as necessary as food is to the body. The viable seeds of spirituality and culture that lie dormant within us need to “sprout” into broad daylight to create real sets of cultures welcome on Earth.

Author Biography

A master of eloquence and innovative language, Martín Prechtel is a writer, artist, and teacher who, through his work both written and spoken, hopes to promote the subtlety, irony, and premodern vitality hidden in any living language. A half-blood Native American with a Pueblo Indian upbringing, he left New Mexico to live in the village of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, eventually becoming a full member of the Tzutujil Mayan community there. For many years he served as a principal in that body of village leaders responsible for instructing the young people in the meanings of their ancient stories through the rituals of adult rites of passage. Once again residing in his native New Mexico, Prechtel teaches at his international school, Bolad’s Kitchen. Through music, ritual, farming, sacred architecture, ancient textiles, tools, and story, Prechtel helps people in many lands to remember their own sense of place in the daily sacred through the search for the Indigenous Soul.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
A Note on Writing with Native Words	p. xxi
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic	p. 1
Always a Place at the Table	p. 3
Star Arches, the Lurching Earth, and the Seed-eyed God	p. 12
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic	p. 35
The Life of People as Plants	p. 67
In the Shade of the Fire Flower	p. 69
The Fiery Speech of Seeds as Time	p. 86
The Miraculous Return of the Tree of Time	p. 109
The Frenchman Gets "Everything"	p. 126
Checkmated by My Love	p. 140
People as Seeds, Their Youth as Chocolate, the Dead Echoing Back to Life	p. 149
Keeping the Seeds Alive	p. 173
Burning Up the Memory	p. 175
The Seeds Come Back Riding "Little Bald Gourd"	p. 188
Swimming Past the Dogs of Amnesia, the Seeds Disappear into the Redwoods	p. 206
The Six Donancianas	p. 227
Tunneling Past Centuries, Red Corn in Their Cheeks, the Old Ladies Scurry into View	p. 257
"Here's Your Damned Corn"	p. 268
From Their Motley Hands, the Motley Seeds Surprise the People into Beauty	p. 287
Seeds of Birth and Seeds of Death Return, Carrying the Whole World	p. 298
Our Agreement with the Holy in Nature	p. 305
Our Ancient Seed Jar	p. 307
The Marriage Contract with the Wild	p. 316
Keeping Our Agreement with the Wild:	p. 323
Our Ancient Seed Jars: Finding an Agreement to Keep	p. 323
There Has to Be Wild Land, Air, and Sea	p. 324
The Veld-Sacred Feral Land	p. 327
All Origins Must Be Known-Where the Seeds Go, So the Agreement Must Go	p. 330
When the People Marry, the Seeds Marry	p. 341
Kneel at the Feet of the Mother of the Food You Eat and Ask Her to Adopt You	p. 348
Beautiful Farming	p. 354
A Temple Called a Field	p. 360
The Majesty of Decay	p. 364
The Body of the Plants City	p. 369
Offerings-Farmers as the Jewelers of Vitality	p. 375
Kiss Your Pumpkins-Sacred Pantry Temples	p. 381
Learning to Live Beyond Our Time-The Dead Must Feed the Living	p. 391
The House of Origins	p. 398
The Famous Story of One Eye	p. 415
Glossary of Non-English Words	p. 423
New Words and Redefined Words as Understood in This Book	p. 431
About the Author	p. 445
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