ABSTRACT
Don Francisco began his story of travel to the coast as one climbed the steep trail back up the mountain toward Tenan Ch'en. With his words he transported to the time when he was a young man leaving Jacaltenango and joined thousands who made their annual trek to the coffee, sugar cane, and banana plantations on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala. "It was a time of great hardship", he said. Don Francisco's father was one of the last of Jacal's "chief prayermakers". His work, similar to Don Francisco's now, was to pray and to heal. On his treks to the coastal farms, Francisco followed one of the footpaths that drop steeply off the Jacal plateau and lead to Río Azúl. There his path converged with the footpath leading through Pajba', the deeded and fenced haciendas at the border, and finally into Mexico where he followed a narrow path along Río Selegua toward the coast.
