Award-winning author
Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. On her road to publication she wrote
freelance articles for two local newspapers and enjoyed her job with the County
Extension service as a 4-H Program Assistant. Raising hay and cattle, riding
horses, and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle,
she lives it. But Paty isn’t here today to talk about the American West; she’s
here to talk about something altogether different—Guatemala, Maize, and the
Maya. Learn more about Paty and her books at her website and blog.
Guatemala, Maize, and
Adventure
Guatemala has been termed the “Land of Eternal Spring.”
This is due to the fact most of the country has temperatures that range between
64-82° F, and humidity is rarely a problem. The temperature does cool
significantly during the night. However the coastal areas and Petén jungle
lowlands are hot and humid. The combination of hot and humid can drain you. The
temperatures in the jungle are above 85° F, giving the lush vegetation the
perfect conditions to thrive.
Many beautifully colored birds live in the lush
environment, along with howler monkeys, spider monkeys, jaguar, coatie, agouti,
foxes, pecarí, and leaf cutter ants.
The country is bordered by Mexico, Belize, Honduras,
and El Salvador. It also has two coastlines--the Pacific Ocean and the
Caribbean Sea. Besides exploring the lovely beaches there are also volcanoes,
jungle, mountains, lakes, and Mayan Ruins.
The Mayan people lived in Central America and Mexico
for 2500 years. During this time, as they prospered, they built cities to house
their people and temples to pay homage to their gods and leaders.
Ti’kal is one of the largest urban centers of the
pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It sits in the Petén Region of Northern
Guatemala and has many visitors yearly. There has been much speculation on why
the Mayan civilization declined abruptly. Some say it was because they ran out
of space and workers to raise the food needed to feed their growing numbers.
The fresh fruit and vegetables in Guatemala have
supplied its people with nourishment for thousands of years. The staples have
always been corn, beans, and chilies. There are also plantains or bananas, yucca, carrots, celery, cucumbers, and
radishes as well as papaya and mangoes.
Mayas were wonderful farmers. They learned to use
different methods depending on the area where they lived. They terraced on
slopes, raised fields in swamps and rivers, and slashed and burned forests to
provide more land for planting. Their main crop, and what they used as currency
as well as food, was maize a forerunner to the corn we have today.
The life cycle of maize was the outline the Maya used
to come up with their 260 day calendar. Maize was the major substance of the
Maya people. Because it could not reseed itself and required a human to plant
it, maize was the symbol of Maya social existence in communion with nature.
Because it was an essential of the life of the Maya,
they had bloodletting rituals to bring forth vision quests that opened portals
to the otherworld, which allowed the gods to come forth and bless their crops.
Corn or maize was also an important crop for many of
the North American natives and while it was revered and used in many ways, it
wasn’t held as a religious icon as it was in the Maya culture.
There have been many dissertations written on the
influence and co-mingling that may have occurred. What I found interesting is
the fact that while the Maya did perform bloodletting rituals and some human
sacrifice, these rituals were not a part of the North American cultures. In
fact, the North American cultures who offered prayers and song to the Creator
rather than sacrifices to the Gods appeared to have a tighter community without
social classes and jealousy.
I’ve set my action adventure romance novel, Secrets of a Mayan Moon, at an
archeological dig in the Guatemalan jungle.
Secrets of a Mayan
Moon
What happens when a
brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human
sacrifice?
Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey,
is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish,
her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s
been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll
keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys,
artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her
scholarly intentions.
DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family.
He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the
appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood, taking
him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.
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8 comments:
Thank you for allowing me to share what I learned about Guatemala with you.
Hi Paty.
Great post. I'm a huge fan of anything Maya, Inca, Aztec... and Native Indian in general (North and South Americas). I absolutely love their music. Along with Celtic music, Andean music is at the top of my favorite type of traditional music. Historical fiction is my favorite type of books but I read almost anything. However, as soon as there's a hint of "history", I'm usually in. This book of yours is one on my TBR list along with your Spirit series (I won Spirit of the Mountain not long ago - still have to read it (third on my list now).
Enjoyed the post.
Hi Liette,
I'm a fan of Native American cultures and enjoy doing the research for my books. I listened to Maya music while writing this book. I hope you enjoy the books.
Hi Christine! Thanks for stopping in and commenting!
This post was amazing! Thanks so much.
Angela, you're welcome! Thank you for taking time out of your day to read it.
Loved learning more about Maize. The Natives in the area of Michigan called corn along with squash and beans, the three sisters. They planted the three seeds together and believed that the three plants co-existed very nicely. The tall corn helped support the trailing squash and beans.
Best of luck with your books!
Hi Melissa, That is fun information about the Michigan Natives. It makes sense. Thanks for stopping in.
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