Ixcanul, Volcano

I spent my childhood in the Guatemalan highlands, land of the Maya, surrounded by volcanoes and ancient indigenous traditions. As a child, I crossed the mountains with my mother on her medical campaigns, which consisted of convincing Mayan mothers to vaccinate their children. It was hard work trying to create alliances between the Mayan and mestizo communities. In most cases, the Mayans didn’t speak Spanish and the mountains were unsafe due to the armed conflict that was ravaging the country at the time.

Years later, my mother shared her outrage with me, when she found out that some public health employees had been involved in the abduction of Mayan children, contributing to the breakdown of the bonds they’d struggled so hard to create.

This was the jumping-off point for this story and it is where it will come full circle.

Unfortunately, the Guatemalan highlands where I grew up always suffered from a high rate of discrimination and were deeply affected by the trafficking of children during and after the country´s armed conflict (1960 – 1996). The abduction of children in my country is no secret. With only 14 million inhabitants, Guatemala became the first exporter of children in the world. The UN reported 400 abductions of minors each year, carried out with complete impunity. A very broad and dark issue, it brings together many guilty parties such as public notaries, judges, doctors, orphanage directors, and so many more.

Despite the density and resonance of the subject, my interest focused on the mothers, victims of this aberration. Tackling it from the point of view of a mother and her environment, so far from modernity, allowed me to also talk about indigenous women in general: their life, their people, and their position up against a westernized culture that would always dominate, and within a culture where they will always end up being the victim of abuse and injustice. Maria is a young character who belongs to this culture and fights to create her own destiny, but isn´t allowed to.

My work began at the heart of the Maya community, setting up workshops for people to discuss the social problems that concerned them. Drawing from these real-life stories, meetings, and one testimony in particular, I wrote the narrative. Also during this process, I trained members of the community to be actors in the film. It was an eye-opening experience for me.

I wanted the story to build slowly. Starting within a naturalist world, from the nucleus of a Maya family. Discovering their everyday gestures, language, traditions, and rites. Revealing their communion with the local volcano, Ixcanul, which acts as another character in the story. Human life and nature living as one. Finally, reaching the moment in which this idea of life and the world becomes fertile ground for the vultures that come to drink from the source, taking advantage of the abyss that separates two opposing conceptions, leaving impotence as the only possible answer.

Jayro Bustamante