A group of Guatemalan musicians is on a mission to breathe life into a pre-Columbian language and heritage through a thoroughly modern genre: hip-hop.
Calling themselves Balam Ajpu, which means “Jaguar Warrior” or “Warrior of Light,” they rap in the ancient Mayan Tz’utujil language with the goal of making it cool for kids and teaching them their ancestors’ stories and ways.
Their debut album, Tribute to the 20 Nawuales, or spirits, is set to be released to coincide with the March 20 spring equinox. The musicians rap in both Tz’utujil and Spanish, blending a hip-hop beat with marimba and natural sounds like bird songs and running water.
“Since the time of the [Spanish] invasion, the [Mayan] worldview was persecuted, even almost snuffed out, but now it’s returning to life, relying on music and sustaining itself in art,” said group member Rene Dionisio, who uses the stage name Tz’utu Baktun Kan. “Our commitment as artists is to rescue the ancient art.”
Three years in the making and completed in the middle of this month, the album’s songs pay tribute to each of Guatemala’s 22 provinces plus Mexico’s Chiapas and Yucatan, encompassing the region where the Mayan civilization hit its apex around 250 to 950.
The lyrics came from a young Mayan priest named Venancio Morales, who serves as the group’s spiritual guide. Starting with the project’s genesis and as recently as this month, he performed prayer ceremonies where he entered into a trance and dictated in Tz’utujil what the songs should say.
“These are the ancient stories / that were told to us / by our first mothers and fathers / who asked our creators for the wisdom to sow our essence,” goes the track B’atz, or “Child of Time.”
Much of the album is dedicated to exploring the concept of spirits represented by animal glyphs in the Mayan mythology. The record also provides a handy guide for listeners to find their own nawuales based on birthdate.
“We all have a nawual, and by listening to the songs the people identify with theirs,” Dionisio said.
Balam Ajpu said Tz’utujil lends itself to hip-hop rhythms as well as any other language and their music is faithful to the percussive tradition of their ancestors.
“They used the beat of the drums in their ceremonies, in their battles,” said Juan Martinez, aka Dr Native. “So did others, such as African peoples.”
The group performs in communities like Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, San Pedro la Laguna and Solola, in the highlands west of Guatemala City.
Wearing face paint and traditional garb, they swing incense-burners that smoke up the air. Ceremonial flutes and rattles contrast with the occasional improvised beatboxing.
Tz’utujil hip-hop has a long way to catch up with more mainstream music, but the group is picking up admirers.
“I love their rhymes,” said Weedman Corona, a 14-year-old budding rapper who took in a performance in San Marcos. “They taught me to make rhymes, now I have my own and I also hope to release my own songs soon.”
The group is already working on a second record, which will explore the 13 “energies” associated with the nawuales as established by the Mayan calendar.
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