While the same day, nearby, new graves are opened by the hundreds filled with poor campesinos, Maya who have fallen on top of the hieroglyphs. This collection of poetry comprises twenty-six poems by Victor Montejo of the Jakaltek Maya of Guatemala. They vividly express the values of traditional Mayan culture, while at the same time exposing the brutal 30 year war of extermination which his people have endured.
Victor weaves a story of how it feels to live in exile, using both comedy and scathing irony.
He describes the clash of cultures with lyric intensity. He, like Rigoberta Menchu, knows first-hand the brutality of being Indian in the land of his ancestors. At the present time Victor is teaching anthropology in the United States. We can neither take it lightly nor accept it because we, the native peoples, are the ones they disfigure. Yet today we Maya remain hushed up and have even forgotten the message that might inspire us to break the silence.