Leyendas de Guatemala
Miguel Ángel Asturias
 Leyendas de Guatemala is made up of a series of short stories, which transform the oral legends of popular culture into relevant textual manifestations. Guatemala serves as the first introduction to the legends about the Central American nation bearing the same name. This story presents Guatemala as a palimpsest, in which the duality of past vs. present and the Maya-Quiché vs. the Spanish identities becomes prominent. The story begins with a winding road and a cart approaching an unnamed city and focuses on a pair of goitered elders, Don Chepe and Niña Tina, who are laden with the country's heritage. To stitch together the legends that compose the rest of the book told by these elders, the character, “Cuco de los Sueños,” is introduced. The narrator then tells two anecdotes, one about Brother Pedro de Betancourt and another about Fray Payo Enriquez de Rivera. Both stories emphasize transformation and contrasting elements. Asturias' main argument is that Guatemala is a nation built on nations and that change is possible. Asturias makes references to the main cities and sites of Guatemala, such as Guatemala City and Antigua, which were formed during the colonial era of Guatemala. He also mentions the Guatemalan sites of Quiriguá, Tikal, as well as Palenque and Copán, which although they are not part of modern-day Guatemala, were part of the "Maya Empire". It is explained in this leyenda that the modern cities of Guatemala have been physically constructed upon previous colonial and indigenous cities, which creates an image of Guatemala as "a house of several levels" and gives legitimacy to the "unity of the Hispanic and Maya races". Asturias emphasizes that ancient cultures are preserved within these layers. This first introduction is about the reinstitution of the past culture and lost traditions. As such, "Guatemala" can be understood as a personal declaration of its own aesthetic, since it is a text where, as in the buried and overlapping cities, everything is combined. This discursive strategy marks the complexity of Guatemalan identity that Asturias tried so fervently to understand and delineate in literary terms for most of his life. Asturias presents himself at the end of the story. Upon arriving to the capital he exlaims, “Mi pueblo! Mi pueblo!” Thus it is argued that this first story reveals Asturias' feelings of nostalgia. (I Remember Now) This story serves as a second introduction and presents creation as an inseparable element of destruction. This is the first of seven legends that the figure Cuero de Oro will tell. Cuero de Oro is the mythical manifestation of our newcomer, pale-skinned narrator. This figure engages in a narrative interplay with don Chepe and doña Tina, who are also mysterious figures that represent the elders who tell the tales of Guatemala. These elders speak of a tree that destroys the notion of time. "At the beginning of the narrative, the three initial paragraphs are in the present [tense], and then become the past tense once the story of Cuero de Oro (...) begins. This provokes a certain surprise, not to mention a certain (...) temporal confusion". That is to say, mysterious and almost magical elements enter within the context of this story. The emphasis on the oral qualities of traditional story telling are also evident in this short story. The narrator is telling us about his journey, and his anguish during his delirious night. This narration is full of voices, for example as don Chepe and Niña Tina respond to Cuero de Oro's exhortation. Asturias even ends the tale with the final sentence: and the conversation ended. The textual interplay between Cuero de Oro and don Chepe and Niña Tina can also be interpreted as representative of a child who is searching for the roots of his identity, questioning those who have access to this knowledge of another (mythical) time and space. (Legend of the Volcano) Leyenda del Volcán teaches that destruction is always followed by rebirth, implying that Maya-Quiche culture can be reborn. It relates the origin of the people in Guatemala in "one day that lasted many centuries". It begins with six men, three of whom appeared from the water and three of whom appeared from the wind. Asturias' emphasis on the number three throughout the legend is in reference to the number's importance in Nahuatl tradition. The three men from the water nourish themselves with stars and those from the wind walk through the forest like bird-men. In addition to these men there are two gods, Cabrakán, who provokes earthquakes, and Hurakán, who is the giant of the winds and the spirit of the sky. Hurakán produces a tremor and all of the animals flee from the forest. One of the six men, who is named Nido (the word for "nest" in Spanish), is the only being that remains and is ordered by a trinity, consisting of a saint, white lily, and a child, to build a temple. Afterwards the trees begin to fill with nests, illustrating how this story exemplifies the process of renewal. This legend narrates a clear struggle between religions. It contrasts Catholicism (e.g.: references to "little crosses" and the trinity) with the forces of Cabrakán and Hurakán, who represent Maya-Quiche religion. Set in the seventeenth century, this legend illustrates the capacity humanity has to overcome oppression. In the first paragraph we are presented with the protagonist, a beautiful novice at a convent who, with time, will later become Madre Elvira de San Francisco. This character changes names various times in the story. The next several paragraphs are dedicated to describing the ambiance of the convent that encircles her, subtly moulded by her emotional perspective. She is plagued by her braid because it incites the physical arousal of men. Eventually she becomes mortified, therefore cutting off her braid, which then turns into a snake. The snake coils around a candle, putting out its flame, and sending the man to hell. Preito shows how the Cadejo was "...born out of temptation and ready to haunt humanity until the end of time. Through the description of how Madre Elvira de San Francisco was able to rid herself of her braid, Asturias demonstrates how humanity possesses the means to liberate itself from the "yoke" which binds it, regardless of how oppressive it may be. In this story there are frequent images of death and dead bodies, as well as instances of magical happenings. In the last paragraph of the story it is unclear whether or not Asturias indicates that the events were nothing more than a dream. This legend aims to describe ways in which humanity can and will regain its freedom. The legend is about an almond tree, that is described as a "priest-tree". This tree guards the Maya traditions and recounts the passing of the years. The tree divides its soul between the four paths that one encounters before the underworld known as Xibalbá. These four paths are marked by different colors: green, red, white and black. Each portion of the soul embarks on a different path on which they each face temptations. The black road, which in Mayan tradition leads to the underworld, trades part of its soul with the merchant of Priceless Jewels, who then uses in exchange for the most beautiful slave. The slave escapes, and the character of the tree, searching for the missing part of his soul eventually finds her. The Inquisition then intervenes and sentences to kill them. In the end, the beautiful slave escapes the night via the magic of a boat drawn on her prison wall. On the morning of the execution the only thing the guards find in the prison cell is an old almond tree. In this legend, Master Almond represents the Maya-Quiche civilization and the Inquisition represents a foreign power. This legend shows that "the soul is not at the mercy of external forces" and "therefore humans always have the means to recover their independence". In this legend, Asturias takes the idea of the child/demon, el Sombrerón, and explores it through a lens of magic; he creates a ball which appears and disappears, in which he encloses a Sombreron or devil. The protagonist is a monk, who becomes tempted by a ball that bounces through his window into his cell. He find himself enthralled by the ball and even begins to wonder if it may be affiliated with the devil. He spends countless hours playing with the ball, and when he talks to a woman whose son had lost the ball, and feels pressured to return it, the neighbors claim he appeared to look like the devil. He then eventually throws the ball out his window, and the ball transforms into the Sombrerón. Thus again, Asturias is showing that humans "are capable to breaking the ties that bind them to the undesirable". This legend, like Leyenda del Cadejo, corresponds to the Spanish colonial period in Guatemala, and is written in a simple colloquial tongue. It focuses on the Spanish and a Christian aspects of Guatemala and it takes place in the city of Antigua. Sáenz asserted in his analysis that the ball that the monk enjoys and plays with symbolizes an ancient Maya ball game. Thus, in this legend Christian and Maya traditions are combined as the ball equates an element of Maya ritual, but also has the characteristics of a devil. (Legend of the Treasure from the Flowerying Place) This legend takes place at the time when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Guatemala, while the natives celebrate the end of a war. It is situated near the lake Lago de Atitlán, where the Tz'utujil people live. Near this lake is a volcano named Abuelo del Agua, which means "grandfather of the water". This volcano hides the treasure from the bordering tribes who escaped from the plundering of the Spanish. The legend begins at twilight, which, according to Sáenz, can be seen as a comparison to the decline of the indigenous civilization. The end of the war is announced and a night-long celebration of peace ensues among the aboriginal people in the story. There's a list of the squadrons of soldiers, and each one is distinguished by the colors of the feathers they wear. The head of the local Maya brings together those who are to be sacrificed. The moment of destruction begins as the priests exclaim ritual sentences to the volcano, while the Spaniards ("white men") approach. The tribes are terrified and flee to the lake to protect themselves against the invasion, leaving the treasure behind. Out of all eight texts which compose the original first edition, this last one is the only one which is set in the pre-Hispanic era, even if it is set right at the moment of the arrival of the Spanish. Asturias contrasts the two cultures; he describes the natives as connected to the natural world (their arms green with plant blood) and associates them with abundance and a sense of richness (they had flowers, fruits, birds, beehives, feathers, gold and precious stones), while emphasizing the scarcity and want of the Europeans by repeating the preposition "without" over and over again in their context. (The sorcerers of the spring storm) This legend is an interpretation of the creation of the world by the work of gods, and contains many magical and symbolic elements. It is divided into six parts and it describes the mythological fights for the survival between the three kingdoms: animal, plant, and mineral. Juan Poye is the protagonist of the legend and is a "man-river" that symbolizes fertility and the living. When the humans forget the rules of love and act cruelly, the river becomes a source of punishment for the immoral humans. All that remains at the end of the legend is cities covered by the vegetation of the Quiché land. In this story Asturias creates a new magical language in which he mixes Maya and Judeo-Christian ideas of an apocalypse and combines them to create this Apocalypse of Juan. (alternate spelling: Kukulkan) This is the last story in Leyendas, and was written in the form of a play. It was added to the legends in the second edition. The three scenes are separated by colored curtains that indicate the passing of time; the curtain colors (yellow, red, and black) and scene changes follow the movement of the sun. The main characters are: Guacamayo, a bird of a thousand colors, who is deceitful, Cuculcán, or Plumed Serpent, and Chinchinirín, who is Cuculcán's warrior-attendant. Yaí is another character who is a "woman-flower" and is to be sacrificed. Guacamayo and Cuculcán dispute the legend of the sun, and behind his back, Guacamayo accuses him of being a fake, and argues with Chinchinirín. Finally, plotting to take Cuculcán's place, Guacamayo makes a deal with Yaí, but Cuculcán is saved. In the end the moon is born from Chinchinirín's body as he tries to reach Yellow Flower. This final legend is a lucid re-elaboration on the Maya legend of the Plumed Serpent in order to permit an approach to the question of identity as a social construction. The tricky mirror which appears in the story (which confuses Guacamayo and Cuculcán about what is "real") is a metaphor for a brutal relativism which Asturias introduces in order to express the dual and complementary character of reality. That is to say Asturias presents the reality of an identity as dual, diglossic, and relative in the universe of Cuculcán, and applies this to the newly constructed, hybrid Guatemalan identity