2012: The Mayan Word – A Call To Action
Everyone is talking about the Mayan Prophecies of 2012. But who is listening to the Maya?
This groundbreaking documentary brings us the voices of the Mayan people as they share their perspectives on the prophecies of their ancestors and their fight to defend Mother Earth and their culture from destruction.
2012 The Mayan Word is both a message of hope and a call to action. Featuring testimonies from contemporary Mayans throughout Mesoamerica, from spiritual guides to activists, community leaders, farmers, artists, teachers, and children, this film is an extraordinary journey into the heart of Mayan struggle and spirituality.
ORGANIZATIONS APPEARING IN THE DOCUMENTARY
GUATEMALA
- La Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos (UDEFEGUA)
- Conferencia Nacional de Ministros de La Espiritualidad Maya de Guatemala Oxlajuj Ajpop
- Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura
- Centro Cultural Sotz’il Jay—Grupo Sotz’il
- Sotz´il- Centro Para la Investigación y Planificación del Desarrollo Maya
- Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala
- Coordinadora Nacional Indígena y Campesina
- Comité de Unidad Campesina
- Centro Para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (CALDH)
- Coordinación y Convergencia Nacional Maya Waqib’Kej
EL SALVADOR
- Fundación Pasos del Jaguar
- Instituto de la Permacultura en El Salvador (IPES)
- Consejo Coordinador Nacional Indigena Salvadoreano (CCNIS)
HONDURAS
BELICE / BELIZE
MEXICO
OTRAS ORGANIZACIONES / OTHER ORGANIZATIONS MEDIOS / MEDIA
- ProMedios de Comunicación Comunitaria, A.C.
- Comunicador@s Populares Por la Autonomía
- El Servicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ)
- Caracol Producciones Guatemala
- Asociación Comunicarte
- Undercurrents
- Indymedia Chiapas
- Red de Medios Libres de Chiapas
- Frequencia Libre
MINERIA / MINING
- Red Mexicano de Afectados por la Mineria (REMA)
- No a la Mina
- Mining Watch Canada
- Amigos de La Tierra Internacional / Friends of the Earth International
ADDITIONAL READING
- El Salvador Noticias articulo sobre 2012 La Palabra Maya
- Radio interview with Director Melissa Gunasena
- Indian Country Today Media Network – Mayan 2012 Predictions: Apocalypse or a Game of Telephone
- Review of 2012 The Mayan Word on scribd
- http://www.2012mayanword.org
RELATED
- Evo Morales On 2012: Urgente, Recobrar Sentido De Unidad Con La Madre Tierra
- Father Miguel d’Escoto At Rio+20 Summit, June, 2012
- Revolutionary Voices Against Imperialism
- Language Of The Third Universal Theory
I added an article today that should be linked with this documentary:
Evo Morales On 2012: Urgente, Recobrar Sentido De Unidad Con La Madre Tierra
Hakomi added this comment there:
COMUNICADO DEL COMITÉ CLANDESTINO REVOLUCIONARIO INDÍGENA-
COMANDANCIA GENERAL DEL EJÉRCITO ZAPATISTA DE LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL.
MÉXICO.21 DE DICIEMBRE DEL 2012
A QUIÉN CORRESPONDA:
¿ESCUCHARON?
Es el sonido de su mundo derrumbándose.
Es el del nuestro resurgiendo.
El día que fue el día, era noche.
Y noche será el día que será el día.
¡DEMOCRACIA!
¡LIBERTAD!
¡JUSTICIA!
Desde las montañas del Sureste Mexicano.
Por el Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena-Comandancia General del
EZLN
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
México, Diciembre del 2012.
EZLN
The core message:
HAVE YOU HEARD?
It is the sound of this world collapsing.
It is the sound of our return.
The day of the old world was night.
Now the night of the old world has passed. It is the new dawn, the first day of days.
DEMOCRACY!
FREEDOM!
JUSTICE!
Only the resonating echo of rain pattering down on the cobblestone streets of Chiapas’ colonial cities sounded as tourists from around the globe awaiting the end of the world in the center of the Mayan Civilization were surprised by the silent marches of more than 40,000 masked Mayan Zapatistas who descended on their apocalyptic misinterpretations of the Mayan 13 Ba´ktun.
A faint sound of a baby’s cry would occasionally emerge from a bundle beneath a plastic tarp on the back of a masked Zapatista in the endless lines of Mayan rebels who quietly held formation in the rain. They marched four file booted and bare-footed into the same cities they surprised on a cold new year’s eve night 19 years ago, shouting their first YA BASTA!
Yesterday’s weapon, differing from the 1994 armed indigenous uprising, was the Zapatista silence, their moral authority, the echo of a unified and deafening silence that shouted YA BASTA! once again. A silence that in their massive presence in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Ocosingo, Altamirano, Las Margaritas and Palenque shouted without a word that the a new Mayan era has begun and the Zapatistas are present. A silence that was meant to remind Mexico’s recently inaugurated President Enrique Peña Nieto and his PRI party that the root causes of the Zapatista struggle are as prevalent today as they were 19 years ago: lack of health care, education, housing, land, food, indigenous rights, women’s rights, gay rights, dignity, and justice. A silence that reminded the returning PRI that there is a Mexico profundo, a Mexico jodido, a Mexico con hambre, and a Mexico dispuesto a luchar and in struggle. The Zapatistas and the EZLN need not say a word today, their actions and silence said enough. Aqui estamos!
As early as 4 a.m. the Mayan indigenous, Tzeltales, Tzotziles, Tojolobales, Choles, Zoques, and Mames began their mobilizations from their five cultural centers of resistance, known as Caracoles, emerging from the Lacandon jungle, the Chiapas Canyon lands, and the rain soaked highlands. They quietly moved along the mountainous, fog-bearing roads towards the same cities (plus Palenque) that they descended upon when these ill-equipped ragtag rebels launched their armed uprising on January 1st 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went in to effect.
Yesterday’s marches by the Zapatista National Liberation Army comprised of Mexico’s Mayan indigenous peoples was the first mobilization since their May 7, 2011 march demanding an end to the widespread violence and impunity in Mexico. That march echoed Poet Javier Sicilia’s movement for justice demanding the end to PANista President Felipe Calderon’s US-backed War on Drugs that has claimed up to 80,000 lives over the last six years. Calderon, who departs Mexico leaving a bloodstained country, will follow his predecessor Ernesto Zedillo’s footsteps to a safe haven in US academia, entering Harvard and moving to Cambridge, a town ironically that has one of the world´s lowest per capita murder rates, contrary to a Mexico ranking in the world’s top 10 country’s with major violent death tolls. Today’s Zapatista march, explains award winning Mexican Journalist Jose Gil Olmos, marks a symbolic moment being December 21st on the Gregorian calendar and 13 Ba´ktun, or the end of the 144,000 day Mayan long calendar, silently saying that this is beginning of a new calendar, a new era and the Zapatistas are present:
“The mere presence of the Zapatistas here today just as the new government of Enrique Peña Nieto is getting started and the return of the PRI is a message in and of itself that the EZLN exists and is here, that the EZLN is a social and political force and they are reminding the PRI that things are not good, That the voice of the voiceless and the faceless are saying listen up! There is a forgotten Mexico here, a Mexico that is starving and disparate and the march, a silent march is an emblematic message in and of itself.”
There were no visible Zapatista Commanders in the marches, no words spoken, no chants could be heard, nor banners seen. Only two flags accompanied the thousands of Mayan rebels, a Zapatista five pointed red star on black and the Mexican flag. The same scenario could be seen in each of the five cities that the Zapatistas descended upon despite the unusual rains for the beginning of the Chiapas dry season. The Zapatistas arrived, marched on the city centers, built make-shift stages on top of cars and marched thousands of Zapatistas four by four, fists in the air, over the stages in front of their flags. Then, as quickly and quietly as they arrived, the Zapatistas disappeared into the fog and rain that camouflaged their arrival.
Late in the day a one-page communiqué signed by Zapatista rebel leader Sub-Comandante Marcos, El Sup, began to go viral on the internet. The communiqué simply read the following:
Did You Hear?
That is the sound of your world falling apart.
It is the sound of our resurgence.
The day that was the day, was night.
And night will be the day that will be the day.
Democracy!
Liberty!
Justice!
Zapatista March
We are witnessing an awakening that is being influenced by the Spirit and by Nature itself.
Nature has been waiting for this moment, for us to come together and become unified, in our unique and distinctive ways, which represent the whole of the human family. When we put ourselves in order, then the universe and the Earth will naturally set things in order.
The people are demanding a change. We must seize on this great opportunity for change and for peace, which will be supported by the Spirit and the forces of Nature working in alliance with us.
We must first of all recognize and acknowledge that it is the Land that binds and connects us all. The Land is the foundation for all life, and we all owe our existence to the Earth. The Land is what sustains us all. Just as important are the other elements that sustain us. Water is the passage for all life that must be taken care of. The Air reminds us of our sacred responsibility in taking care of the plant life. In our ceremonies, the Sacred Fire is lit to create an entrance for the Spirit.
This awakening that we are seeing around the world is the people’s demand for change. And this change begins by changing the way we have treated the Earth, and changing how we have been living not following the Natural Laws that reflect true sharing and respect for life.
As a spiritual people, we have resisted many attempts to remove us from the closeness and love that we have for the Land. The Land has always offered our people the definition of our duties and responsibilities as human beings.
We are a people filled with Ceremony. Ceremony has always guided us. Through Ceremony we have been able to invoke our ancestors and the spiritual beings that are helping bring back the memory of what helped us to survive as a people for thousands and thousands of years.
It is the Spirit that will ensure that the truth will be revealed.
During the signing of the Treaties, our forefathers brought with them the gifts that reflected the uniqueness of our distinctiveness as a people – the Sacred Pipe, the Drum, the Rattle, our Ceremonies, and a Knowledge that has helped us stay connected to the Land in a sacred way.
One of the most sacred gifts, which the Treaty relationship was founded upon, was the Land, which our ancestors agreed to share with everyone.
When the Treaties were signed a foundation of partnership was laid. We must seize on this opportunity to restore that relationship, accepting love and nonjudgmental forgiveness, and exercising unconditional kindness for all people without exception. To move forward we must return back to the foundation that was set during the signing of the Treaties. To do anything less would be a serious mistake. The only foundation for a healthy humanity is to have peace with Mother Earth.
All along, the Elders of our Nations have carried and understood the true spirit and intent of the relationship established through the Treaties. The relationship was directly tied, connected and bound to the Land itself. The Elders’ understanding has been a spiritual understanding, based on values and principles, which has recognized and appreciated the real meaning of giving and sharing.
An immediate body should be set up to address and restore this relationship, represented by the Treaties. Allow the Elders to have a significant role in ensuring that the spirit of respect and kindness be maintained in the discussions. In these discussions let us move together as equal partners, as the Treaties signify that we are to be equal partners in taking care of the Land. Taking care of the Land also includes taking care of the other elements of Nature – the precious Waters, the Air and the Fire that we rely on to support us, sustain us, teach us and give us Life.
I encourage our Elders to gather across the country. I encourage the leadership to go back to our communities and help restore our spirit, our traditions and our way of life.
I encourage the leadership to support the Elders to meet in their respective regions across the country to give guidance and direction toward the movement of restoring our spiritual and cultural identity – the richness of who we are as the Original People of this Land. There are Elders in every community who have maintained the knowledge of our Ceremonies and the Teachings of who we are as a people.
In our discussions together we must ensure we create a foundation for the future for all of our children. The Land has always spoken to the people, offering guidance towards peace and harmony. We must seize on this great opportunity for change to ensure our very survival and the future of all children. We cannot continue to deal only with the symptoms of a broken relationship, and assimilation is not an option. We will never resolve the present impasse until we are prepared to return to the foundation laid by the original signatories of the Treaty relationship.
Our concern is not merely a political or economic one. Rather it is a spiritual, moral and ethical issue where we have been separated and divided in the human family. This is an issue of supporting the evolution of the human spirit to greater understanding of how we can survive as a human race, living together, sharing and caring for one another, bound together by a common relationship of sacred connection to the Land.
As the Original People of this Land, we want to contribute with a knowledge that can lay a foundation supporting a New Life for the sake of all our children.
It is only when we find true partnership with the original independent Nations of this Land, that the true destiny of America – Turtle Island – will be reached.
Let us work together towards the New Life, following in the foosteps of our ancestors.
Dave Courchene
Dave Courchene – Nii Gaani Aki Innini (Leading Earth Man) has traveled internationally, carrying a message of hope and peace. Dave shares ancient Indigenous knowledge that he believes can act as the foundation in supporting the New Life that Mother Earth is now entering, and that the Elders have confirmed has arrived.