Chol (Mayan) Folktales : A Collection of Stories From the Modern Maya of Southern Mexico

218 Pages·2016·1.017 MB·English

by  Nicholas A. Hopkins, J. Kathryn Josserand

Chol (Mayan) Folktales

Chol (Mayan)
Folktales
A ColleCtion of StorieS from the
Modern MAyA of Southern MexiCo
nicholas A. hopkins and J. Kathryn Josserand
with Ausencio Cruz Guzmán
univerSity PreSS oF ColorAdo
Boulder
© 2016 by University Press of Colorado
Published by University Press of Colorado
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Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
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The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams
State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of
Denver, Regis University, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, Utah State
University, and Western State Colorado University.
∞ This paper meets the requirements of the ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
ISBN: 978-1-60732-487-4 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-60732-488-1 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hopkins, Nicholas A., author. | Josserand, J. Kathryn, author.
Title: Chol (Mayan) folktales : a collection of stories from the modern Maya of southern Mexico /
Nicholas A. Hopkins and J. Kathryn Josserand.
Other titles: Collection of stories from the modern Maya of southern Mexico
Description: Boulder, CO : University of Colorado Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039583 | ISBN 9781607324874 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781607324881 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chol Indians—Folklore. | Tales—Mexico. | Chol language—Texts.
Classification: LCC F1221.C57 H67 | DDC 398.20897/428—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039583
Cover photograph by Nicholas A. Hopkins
The audio files are housed at http://www.upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/2929
-chol-mayan-folktales.
With heartfelt thanks to Ausencio Cruz Guzmán,
without whom none of this could ever have happened.

Ausencio (Chencho) Cruz Guzmán, Zoh-Laguna, Campeche, 2002
(photo by J. Kathryn Josserand)

Contents
Preface: On Collecting Chol Folklore
Nicholas A. Hopkins ix
1. The Chol Maya and Their Folktales
Nicholas A. Hopkins and J. Kathryn Josserand 3
2. The Narrative Structure of Chol Folktales
J. Kathryn Josserand 15
3. Introduction to the Texts
Nicholas A. Hopkins 33
Part 1. Myths and Fables
4. Our Holy Mother
Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 41
5. Older Brother Sun and Younger Brother Sun
Marcos Arcos Mendoza 53
6. The Celestial Bird
Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 59
vii
viii CONTeNTS
7. The Turtle and the Deer
Mateo Alvaro López, Nicolás Arcos Alvaro, and Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 61
Part 2. tales of the Earth Lord
8. Our Grandfather
Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 69
9. The Cave of Don Juan
Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 77
10. A Visit to Don Juan
Mariano Mayo Jiménez and Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 91
Part 3. things that Come Out of the Woods
11. The Messengers
Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 115
12. The Jaguar-Man
Nicolás Arcos Alvarez, Mateo Alvaro López, and Ausencio Cruz Guzmán 129
13. The Blackman
Bernardo Pérez Martínez 139
14. The Comadre
Rafael López Vázquez 147
Part 4. Discourse analysis of Narrative texts
15. Discourse Analysis of Chol Narrative Texts
Nicholas A. Hopkins 159
References 181
Further Reading 193
Preface
On Collecting Chol Folklore
Nicholas A. Hopkins
Kathryn Josserand and I began to collect folktales in our first fieldwork on the Chol
language. We had worked independently on other Mayan languages when we were
graduate students. After graduating from Texas A&M, I had gone to the University
of Texas to study linguistics. While completing my coursework for a master’s degree,
I took a summer course on modern Yucatec Maya (taught by Moisés Romero) at
Mexico City College in 1959 and then was hired on to the University of Chicago’s
Chiapas Study Projects the following year. I spent two years in Chiapas collecting
data on the northern varieties of Tzotzil (McQuown and Pitt-Rivers 1970:9–20;
Hopkins 1967b, 1970, 1974) and then went to graduate school at Chicago. There
I worked as a language lab assistant in the production of the tapes for the courses
Spoken Yucatec (Maya) and Spoken Quiché. I also produced a master’s thesis on
Tzotzil phonology (Hopkins 1964) and a PhD dissertation on Chuj grammar
(Hopkins 1967a).
Kathryn earned a bachelor’s degree in geography and anthropology from
Louisiana State University, and her major professor, Robert C. West, had intro-
duced her to Mexico on vacation field trips. She went to Tulane University
intending to become a Maya archaeologist but was encouraged to go into linguis-
tics instead. She studied Maya at Tulane through the Spoken Yucatec tapes and
spent a year in Yucatán doing research on Maya in preparation for a doctoral proj-
ect (1967–68). The two of us accompanied Terry Kaufman to the field in 1969
and did a small amount of work with his Huastec informants. We were married
ix