More social media posts, this one from travels to the Yucatan….
Something interesting at Chichen Itza were the vendors who come in early in the morning and set up their tables selling all manner of touristy trinkets, jewelry, carved masks, etc. And in true Mexican style, they vocally hawk their wares and invite you over.
It’s common for people to see this as a ‘cheapening’ of this ‘sacred place’
I see it as a POETIC JUSTICE
Many of these folks come from lineages that helped to build these awesome temples, heavy stone by stone, carried long distances…
likely there were many deaths and injuries in this slavery
and then they were excluded from entering…
a giant wall built (by them) to keep the peasants and commoners out
The only people who enjoyed the mathematic and astrological genius of this place were the priests, nobles, artisans and elites
I cannot call this classism, sacred.
In the same way, I cannot be impressed by monuments built on the backs of slaves and oppressed workers all over the world
Chichen Itza is fascinating, a wonder, for sure, but not my holy temple
So often Latinx, like myself, look to these awesome sites as proof that we have magnificent roots because the U.S. has viewed/ used us as servants and looked down on us.
(And we do have profound roots and capacity, obv)
But the sad truth is that this was also a place of elites that excluded and oppressed peasants, while enjoying what they built, and eating the food they grew.
They held grand ceremonies, which reminds me of the many things spiritual folk are doing lately like ‘cacao ceremony, grief workshops, whatever the latest trend in cultural appropriation, often held in lofty ways…
(When your spiritual model is trending, you may be with the elite)
Most ‘peasants’ I know have their head down, working HARD, like most of us no longer understand (we are elites) and their spirituality is earnest, deep and without pretense.
This juxtaposition remains. Not much is new in empires.
I’m glad that the vendors now ‘OWN’ the place and are ‘getting a piece’ from the elites of the world who wander through
It reminds me how Mama Tierra, Creator/the Great Mystery bring things full circle, transforming, creating, destroying, balancing…
poetic justice at Chichen Itza