ABSTRACT
A spiritual thread weaves throughout the story of the struggle for autonomy, human rights, and women’s rights in Chiapas. Beginning in the 1700s, indigenous people initiated several revitalization movements that were religious in character. Women played important roles in these movements, some of which incorporated armed uprisings. Along with their kinsmen, women challenged the hypocrisy of the colonists who were not acting according to the Christian faith that they were preaching. For example, in 1712 in the Tzeltal community of Cancuc, 13-year-old María de Candelaria reported that the Virgin Mary appeared to her. When Ladino priests refused to recognize the appearance of the Virgin, a revolt ensued with indigenous leaders pronouncing that Saint Peter, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus had called them to liberate themselves from Ladino control (Rosenbaum 1993). In this and other rebellions and in daily life, indigenous people creatively link their beliefs about Mayan deities with their understandings of Catholicism. In contemporary prayer and dream accounts, they often speak of female spiritual beings interchangeably as Moon (an ancient Maya deity) and the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ (Eber 2000 [1995]: 115). The prayer by Margarita Pérez in this part (Chapter 13) illustrates the eloquent ritual language that iloletik (traditional healers) use to seek the aid of God and the saints to restore people to health. Throughout her prayer, Pérez refers to God, Father, Lord, and Ladino as “nichimal/flowery.” Nichimal reflects the belief that people are responsible to keep the universe in flower. They do so by decorating caves, crosses, and other sacred places with flowers. Women weavers fulfill their obligation through the many designs depicting fecundity and beauty that they weave into garments and cloths to wrap tortillas (Morris 1987). Weaving and prayer remain powerful forms of communication between people and spiritual beings in highland Chiapas. They draw attention to the life of the spirit. To Mayan peoples—including those who have converted to various Protestant churches—changes of the spirit go hand in hand with material changes.
