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This room with samples of the Maya hieroglyphic writing from San Bartolo (I believe) was another treat available at Casa Herrera on the 2012: Myths and Facts about The Mayan Prophecy conference. Taking this photo was extremely difficult because of the poor lighting conditions and because lots of people were taking photos of the hieroglyphics (including me). I understand nothing of the Maya writing, except that is very beautiful and that without a doubt the Maya were ahead in terms of civilization, culture and art [plus warfare ].

Make sure you make to time to visit Casa Herrera to see what they have on display next time you visit La Antigua Guatemala. Here’s a little overview about Casa Herrera:

The Casa Herrera is a research, conference and teaching facility located in the heart of La Antigua Guatemala that focuses on the varied and inter-related disciplines that contribute to the study of Pre-Columbian art, archaeology, history and culture.

Since 1977, The Maya Meetings at Texas have been at the cutting edge of research into the culture of the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America. This annual conference draws scholars from a wide spectrum. (source: Facebook Casa Herrera page)

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«Luna de Xelajú», “Moon of Xelajú”, has to be the most popular Guatemalan waltz played on marimba and quite possibly the most famous Guatemalan marimba song. “Xelajú” (pronounced shay-lah-HOO) is the old Mayan name for the Guatemalan city Quetzaltenango, still often popularly called “Xelajú” or “Xela”.

Now, I wonder why nobody has made such a song about La Antigua Guatemala’s moon; which is, if I may say so myself, just as enchanting and inspiring. Since Xe-la-jú is a three syllable word, the same as An-ti-gua, could we pretend the song also applies to the beautiful and enchanting Antigua Guatemala, right?

Anyway, in my never ending quest of bringing you the contrast of the ‘Old’ Guatemala versus the ‘New’ Guatemala, I share with you two new versions of Luna de Xelajú. The first rendition of Luna de Xelajú is by Malacates Trebol Shop. The second version of Luna de Xelajú is performed by the group Abracadabra. Next, you will find the lyrics for Luna de Xelajú in Spanish and English right below. Last but not least, you can watch and hear the Marimba of Bellas Artes performed Luna de Xelajú. Enjoy!

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in Spanish:

Luna gardenia de plata,
Que en mi serenata,
Te vuelves canción,
Tú que me viste cantando, me ves hoy llorando,
Mi desilusión,

Calles bañadas de luna,
Que fueron la cuna de mi juventud,
Vengo a cantarle a mi amada,
La luna plateada de mi Xelajú,

Luna de Xelajú,
Que supiste alumbrar,
En mis noches de pena,
Por una morena de dulce mirar,

Luna de Xelajú,
Me diste inspiración,
La canción que hoy te canto,
Regada con llanto de mi corazón,

En mi vida no habrá,
Más cariño que tú,
Mi amor,

Porque no eres ingrata,
Mi luna de plata,
Luna de Xelajú,

Luna que me alumbró,
En mis noches de amor,
Y hoy consuelas mi pena,
Por una morena que me abandonó…

Luna de Xelajú lyrics in English:

Moon, silver gardenia,
In my serenade,
You turn into song,
You who saw me singing, now see me crying,
My disillusionment,

Streets bathed in moonlight,
That were the cradle of my youth,
I come to sing to my beloved,
The silver moon of my Xelajú,

Moon of Xelajú,
You knew how to shine,
In my nights of grief,
For a sweet looking dark-haired girl

Moon of Xelajú,
You gave me inspiration,
The song that I now sing,
Watered with the tears from my heart,

In my life there will not be,
More love than you,
My love,

Because you were not ungrateful,
My moon of silver,
Moon of Xelajú,

Moon that shone,
In my nights of love,
Now you console my grief,
For a dark-haired girl who abandoned me…

(source: Wikipedia)

Last Friday night at 7 p.m. AntiguaDailyPhoto guest contributor and professional photographer Arturo Godoy, Kara Andrade from HablaGuate and I attended the conference La verdadera estructura del Calendario Maya, or The True Structure of the Mayan Calendar, given by Mayanist David Stuart. Dr. David Stuart refuted the modern visions of the end of the world of the 2012 Mayan Calendar as false and lacking any base in the old Maya civilization. The conference was centered around the Mayan Calendar from a new perspective based on the latest research done by Dr. Stuart of the true internal structure of the Mayan Calendar. This was the first time Dr. Stuart gave this conference. In other words, the 2012 Mayan Prophecy is a hoax!

Luckily, Kara Andrade, a new media journalist, took notes and broadcasted them in real time at the new citizen-based and contributed journalism HablaGuate web site as Demystifying 2012; follow the white rabbit if you want to read her notes of the conference. Arturo Godoy and I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to document the conference through photographs. Okay, I will you guys in a little secret, the entire conference was video-taped and the audio recorded by both Arturo and Kara; hint, hint, if you bug them long enough, they will provide links for the video and audio.

This was also my first time at Casa Herrera, a wonderfully restored colonial house. I was delighted with the results of the restoration and I promise I will make the time come back and photograph the entire house and so a series about it.

For now I bring three snapshots taken with the aid of the fish eye attachment donated by Michele and Eddie from Toronto through my Amazon Wish List. Let’s thank them both for their continued support!

Here’s a little overview about Casa Herrera:

The Casa Herrera is a research, conference and teaching facility located in the heart of La Antigua Guatemala that focuses on the varied and inter-related disciplines that contribute to the study of Pre-Columbian art, archaeology, history and culture.

Since 1977, The Maya Meetings at Texas have been at the cutting edge of research into the culture of the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America. This annual conference draws scholars from a wide spectrum. (source: Facebook Casa Herrera page)

Basically Casa Herrera is The Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin.

David Stuart speaks about the myth of 2012 by hablaguate

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