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Author: Florencio Rash ♦
Every time I go to the village of San Antonio in the Toledo District, I get to connect with my family as well as enjoy and understand the culture of my Maya roots. While growing up in Roaring Creek, and now as a student attending the University of Belize, I travel down south once every year, mostly for summer vacation. Two of the many cool stuff that I’ve enjoyed, and at the same time learned a lot from, are tying cuhune leaves together to build a thatch roof and going to the farm with my grandfather and cousins.
Walking through narrow paths deep in the bushes with machetes and axes to get cuhune leaves is tiring, but at the same time it is a lot of fun. We sometimes walk through muddy areas, slipping and sliding and getting dirty before the work even begins. Or we would walk through a shallow creek and take a little dip, which is cool and relaxing. Along the way we tell jokes, and this makes the distance less of an issue. When we arrive at the area where the work is going to be done, we take a little break and drink water.
Chopping the leaves down is a test because the trees are high and it is bamboo sticks that play as ladders for our climbing. The bamboos are strong though, and allow us to climb easily because of the neatly carved holes that we place our feet upon. The climbing looks scary but really is not; soon you don’t even realize you have made it to the top. Reaching the top, you have to have good muscles to handle the ax and machete, and also because the leaves are huge and can fall on you. It looked so easy when I first saw my cousins do it, causing me to think it would be the same for me, a person with no experience. Luckily, I did it and felt accomplished, and this made me feel more connected with them even if it was just for a while.
There is no vehicle in which to load up the cuhune leaves, and putting twenty of those on your shoulder and walking for about two miles is definitely a challenge. We walk from my grandfather’s farm to his house, doing like twenty trips. At times I feel like giving up. What amazes me, though, is that my cousins aren't even tired, and they laugh at me and say it is the normal way of living for them.
We then place the leaves on the ground and stack them into groups of twenty. Then we start to rip each one in half. A simple task that requires little strength, but hours of tearing leaves completely tires the arms. Finally, it seems that all the hard tasks have been completed, but I don't realize that the hardest is yet to come.
At first, I am confident, thinking I can tie the cuhune leaves to the roof frame that has been made with sticks. But I struggle because there is a pattern that must be followed. The leaves must be set in order and placed in straight lines and must be tied tightly to the sticks so that they cannot slide down. The leaves have to be tied in three places: the center, the tip and the ending of the leaf. Precision is key, something I do not have as yet. I’ve slowly developed and learnt, but I still need more experience.
When you are constructing a house, living in a Maya community is very different from living in the city because most of the young men of the village come out and help. Yes, most of my Maya people are poor in the sense that they don’t have a lot of money, but they are definitely rich in that everybody looks out for each other and helps each other with needs. They are also rich in crops, and to me that is the best.
But I’ve learnt during these visits to San Antonio that growing a farm is hard work. You have to clear the land by hand, and most importantly have sharp machetes. You and a couple of other workers then burn it and clear it again, before planting of crops occurs.
But it is also satisfying. You wake up early in the morning to find that the women already have food boiling and steaming above the bright yellow-orange flames of the fire hearth. One of the most popular dishes is caldo, a chicken soup made with yams and cilantro leaves and eaten with hot corn tortillas. Caldo is a traditional dish and is okay for any occasion.
By six o’clock, the men have put on their long pants and a long sleeve shirt and have already sharpened their machetes. Walking outside, you hear birds chirping, see the dew on the grass, and to top it off the bright sun rising. Immediately you know it’s going to be a good day for going to the farm. Walking to my grandparents’ farm takes about 15 to 20 minutes, sometime climbing uphill. I always enjoy the sight of the long rows of green corn and plantain trees. Sometimes you even see little gibnuts along the way, eating cuhune, as well as other animals and birds like toucans and parrots.
The day’s work starts with cleaning away the vines that kill crops and spraying the corn to make it healthy and produce great crops. The Mayas are hardworking and have a lot of passion for their farm because they rely on the crops for their daily food. Everyone has a farm filled with plantain, cassava, yam corn etc. You can never die of hunger when you have a farm full of crops.
Yes, there are many great experiences in a Maya village. The villagers are friendly and are all united, something which stands out for me. Indeed, we are indigenous people, and we must continue to express our culture and identity whether it be through our clothing and, of course, our language, or whether it be through our traditional ways of building and farming.
Photos by Florencio Rash and Aaron Palacio
Florencio Rash is an English major at the University of Belize. He lives in Roaring Creek Village and enjoys playing football and spending time with his family.