Piedras, poder y la traducción de tradiciones mayas

This section reveals an important gap between the K’iche’ and Spanish columns of father Ximénez’s manuscript copy, and one of the cases where we find Spanish colonial intervention – intended or unconscious – into the K’iche’ story. The K’iche’ descriptions of the types of metals used to showcase power and authority reads as such: “xul puwaq” (Colop 1999: 195) or “trajeron metals” (Colop 2008: 212), what Allen J. Christenson (2003: 254-255) translates as “Came precious metal.” In contrast, Ximénez (55r, line 4) simply writes “silver.” Ximenez’s decision to only name silver, instead of an array of different metals, is just one example of Spanish influence on the text. Weeks (2013: 122) points out that, “despite the frequency of references in the historical literature, Spaniards lamented the lack of gold and silver among the K’iche’ and Kaqchikel (Alvarado and Mackie 1924, 27–31; Díaz del Castillo 1908–1916, 200–205).” Thus, Ximénez’s decision to limit the metals used to showcase K’iche’ political power could point to the importance that the Spaniards placed on gold and silver. This is especially true because archaeological evidence suggests that copper was the most widely used metal in the K’iche’ world, and it may have been associated with the extension of K’iche’ political and economic power in the Guatemalan highlands. On this point, Weeks (2013: 123) notes that “the increase in the number and distribution of settlements and K’iche’ influence during the Late Postclassic Period might be expected to bring settlements closer to potential copper sources. Material was probably treated at or near the natural deposits simply because it is easier to transport and tally ingots than bulkier raw materials. Nevertheless, the availability of fuel would dictate the best option for treatment locally. However, we do not know the economic or other factors that decided whether copper should be locally processed or which, if any, might be transported for use elsewhere.” Ximénez’s translation ignores the material realities of copper use in K’iche’ communities and replaces the red metal with something valuable to Spaniards, silver, perhaps as a way of suggesting that there was silver in the region, making K’iche’ practices legible to Spanish readers, or some combination thereof. In translating the phrase as “silver,” Ximénez seems to be signaling something specific to Spanish audiences, rather than following the words of the K’iche’ authors.

The word yamanik is also important to analyze in this passage, as its definition is a point of contention for researchers. Ximenez (55r, line 4) translates the word as “precious stones.” Matsumoto (2017:194n160) writes that, “Basseta (2005: 487) lists yamanic as one of several terms for ‘precious stones’ (also Ximénez 1985: 301). The author of Vocabulario copioso (ca. 1600: 263) adds that it may specify ‘diamond’ or ‘emerald’, whereas Guzmán (1984: 21, also 127) prefers the latter, which is written in large script in his definition ‘emerald, diamond’. Breton (2007:125n6) argues that it refers specifically to ‘green stones, such as jades, emeralds, and serpentines.’ However, other scholars note that yamanik can also refer broadly to ‘wealth, prosperity’ (Edmonson 1965: 1965: 152). In modern K’iche’, it may mean ‘jewel, precious stone,’ or emerald’ (Ajpacaja Tum et al. 1996:514). K’wal and yamanik often appear in a couplet that generally denotes ‘riches’ (Guzmán 1984:21, 89; e.g., Christenson 2003a).” Here, it is important to note the significance of jade in Mayan political ceremonies, a stone seen as an “adornment of royalty…the ultimate paradox of jade is its link to the most ephemeral of beings in Classic imagery, the Maize God. Late Classic pottery place repeated emphasis on his dressings and the later stripping of his jade jewelry” (Houston 2013: 126). Ximenez’s translation of yamanik further points to the Spanish influence on the text, whether it was done purposefully or not. Emerald also has a specific importance in political K’iche’ ceremonies, something which is misconstrued by using the broad phrase “precious stones.”

In addition to his mistranslation of metals and precious stones, Ximénez also limits the colors of feathers used in K’iche’ political ceremonies to “green,” a color that is incredibly significant in various aspects of the K’iche’ community. Some sources and translations discuss a variety of colors; for example, Christenson (2003: 255) writes, “cotinga feathers, / Oriole feathers, / Red bird feathers.” On the other hand, Ximénez only mentions “green.” Gubler (1997: 41) notes that, “the preconquest Maya thought of their earth as flat and four-cornered, with each angle at a cardinal point. Each world-direction had its characteristic color, and the center was colored green/blue-green, a sign of preciosity, associated with water. Just as the heavens were quadripartite, supported by sky bearers, and occupied at the four angles by the four Chacs, so the earth was believed to be supported at the four corners by four Bacabs or four ceiba trees, which were conceived of as trees of life.” This quote highlights the importance of the color green, and that green was seen as a sign of precious life. Houston (2014: 127) adds that anything green was highly valued by the Classic Maya:

The overriding focus is on the ephemeral, the growing, and the life-giving, a green-blue of fresh growth, yax in Classic Maya, whose secondary meanings, not coincidentally, extend to “new” and “first.” The great ceiba tree, thought to grow centrally, was called the yaxte’, the ‘green-blue tree,’ its origins probably going back, by millennia, to a green maize plant at the center of a cultivated field. The color of water to nourish crops, yax is often, in Classic times, slathered on figurines, ceramics, and beads in the form of Maya blue, a vivid pigment of complex manufacture. The green-blue of the Maya glimmers off the quetzal plumes worn by kings and presented as tribute. The attraction here is not only to color but to its visual play, its sheen, its near wetness, dew- or rain-soaked, an intense saturation that might also shift, with light, to other tones. As captured by admiring views in paint, young bodies are likened to that most elegant of dancers, the supple Maize God.

Other Mesoamerican sources, such as the Codex Borgia, provides a vital look into the importance of the color green within related Indigenous communities, such as the Nahua or Mixtec society, the regions where the anonymous codex most likely originated. For example, Plate 49, which represents the East, portrays a tree in the center as a precious jewel; “it was originally painted blue and green… and has jewels as its fruit. Its bird is a green quetzal.” This depiction of jewels, specifically blue-green ones, in the context of a cardinal direction points to the significance of blue-green jewels, such as jade, within the Aztec/Nahua world. It is also important to note that all of the plates depicting the directions (49-53) have a central tree, which is made up of different materials, including green-blue jewels as mentioned above and a green maize plant (Byland 1993: 27). Thus, green represents an incredibly significant and powerful symbol for the Aztecs, which further provides an in depth look as to how other indigenous communities in Mesoamerica viewed the color, including the K’iche’. In comparing Ximénez’s general gloss of “precious stones,” which obscures the meaning of life-giving green stones like jades and emeralds in the K’iche’ community, and his decision to limit the feathers to simply the color green, the following questions must be considered: Was he aware of the importance of the color green in Mayan culture, and if so, why would he translate the text to the generalized category of “precious stones”, yet go on to highlight that the feathers were green? These questions, while not completely answerable, do nevertheless point to Ximénez’s unmistakable influence on the text.