The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive

by Martin Prechtel

Martín Prechtel’s experiences growing up on a Pueblo Indian reservation, his years of apprenticing to a Guatemalan shaman, and his flight from Guatemala’s brutal civil war to life in the U.S. inform this lyrical blend of memoir, cultural commentary, and spiritual call to arms. The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic is both an epic story and a cry to the heart of humanity based on the author’s realization that human survival depends on keeping alive the seeds of our “original forgotten spiritual excellence.”
 
Prechtel relates our current state of ecological crisis to the rapid disappearance of biodiversity, indigenous cultures, and shared human values. He demonstrates how real human culture is exterminated when real (not genetically modified) seeds are lost. Like plants that become extinct once their required conditions are no longer met, authentic, unmonetized human cultures can no longer survive in the modern world. To “keep the seeds alive”—both literally and metaphorically—they must be planted, harvested, and replanted, just as human culture must become truly engaging and meaningful to the soul, as necessary as food is to the body. The viable seeds of spirituality and culture that lie dormant within us need to “sprout” into broad daylight to create real sets of cultures welcome on Earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Ecology, Memoir, Nature, Spirituality, Human Ecology

476 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

A master of eloquence and innovative language, Martín Prechtel is a leading thinker, writer and teacher whose work, both written and oral, hopes to promote the subtlety, irony and pre-modern vitality hidden in any living language. As a half blood Native American with a Pueblo Indian upbringing, his life took him from New Mexico to the village of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. There becoming a full village member of the Tzutujil Mayan population, he eventually served as a principal in that body of village leaders responsible for instructing the young people in the meanings of their ancient stories through the rituals of adult rights of passage. Once again residing in his native New Mexico, Martín teaches at his international school Bolad’s Kitchen. Through story, music, ritual and writing, Martín helps people in many lands to retain their diversity while remembering their own sense of place in the daily sacred through the search for the Indigenous Soul.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that I knew something about Indigenous worldviews, but little did I know how radically different the Indigenous and Civilized modes of thought are! Prechtel argues that the difference is what allowed Indigenous culture to be sustainable, whereas Civilized culture is clearly miserable in the short run and untenable in the long run. Through lots of stories and descriptions, culled from his life as a Pueblo, his apprenticeship as a Mayan Highlands shaman, and his subsequent scholarly research, Prechtel acquaints us with how Indigenous peoples live in harmony with the natural world--including how they think about what is sacred and how to relate to it. Toward the end he offers prescriptions for how we Civilized folk might start picking up Indigenous habits of mind--although the divide is so vast that I don't see myself doing so. He holds out hope for our dominant culture becoming sane through discovery of our roots in Indigenous cultures, but the task seems gigantic to me.

Prechtel writes in a florid style, with plenty of long sentences, colorful metaphors, and no rush to get to the end of each story. I found myself skimming this large book, particularly as the library due date approached. I also was saddened and had to stop more than once, as he described the horrors descending on the Mayan villagers (in Guatemala) from earthquakes, civil war, and disaster capitalism.

[Sam Oanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eloquently and beautifully written, full of stories and lessons about how deep and spiritual cultures have been and are attempting to continue to be. Our modern "cultural amnesia" has removed us from the interconnectedness of all things, and this book's stories and calls to action provided me with some hope and a warm heart. People are plants; plants are people. We are all connected.

[Kalulah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wisdom of the Tzʼutujil Maya that Martín Prectel generously shares in this book is life-changing (and it helps that I read it during my first season gardening!) Prectel encourages us to view seeds as people- as life and death, to plant food and sow not only the seeds, but the stories and cultures that they embody.

For anyone looking desperately for a guidance for our future amid soul-destroying modernity, this is (literally) a down to the roots reminder of what we (as humanity) have lost, and how we can get it back. I’m even a bit sad that I’ve finished this book, as Martín and his soothing voice (heard via audiobook) has become sort of a companion for a very difficult time in my own life. I’d give it 6 stars if I could.

[Polly Lazaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous. Poignant. I appreciate the author's engaging, conversational, lyrical writing style,
the compelling story and life enriching information in this extraordinary, timely book. I laughed, cried, took notes. Specific, personal and universal, Mr. Prechtel's gifted, zesty storytelling bridges cultures and history in ways that entertain as well as invite the reader into reflection and possibly transformation. A memorable, potentially life changing read, call to inspired action and sheer joy.

[Esra Bestel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The wild was a magical court of the aristocracy of the Holy in Nature. One had to know how to act in this court. That was what being a human meant."

Thank you Martin for this beautiful epic story of seeds and giving me a lot to think about where to start.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If we go back far enough, we all have indigenous ancestry in our lineage. Martin Prechtel writes with great beauty, humility, and poeticism about the seed of indigeneity that lives buried within each of us.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book overall. There were a couple gendered issues that got under my skin --- but, the concept of "keeping seeds alive" was revelatory.

[Animagus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book is filled with some phenomenal perspectives and overall was worth the read, but Pretchel’s writing leaves much to be desired with paragraph-long sentences drowning in commas and his insistence on using the word “delicious” at least once per page for the first third of the book. I also nearly put the book down when he mentions pulling the invisible force field over himself to thwart the airports drug sniffing dogs as he’s smuggling seeds…I mean…c’mon. Otherwise, a very interesting read with plenty of tidbits I shared with friends and family. Don’t think I will seek out another one of Pretchel’s books, but I would recommend this to anyone with the caveat that you’re not going to miss much if you scan through the book as opposed to reading every word.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

440 pages. Martín Prechtel grew up in New Mexico on a reservation, apprenticed with a Guatemalan shaman on the shores of Lake Atitlan and was forced to flee with his two sons from the Guatemalan brutal civil war. He gives voice to a lost way of living, of honoring seeds as the renewal and continuity they represent. In the civil war, the indigenous were victimized. He was tasked with continuing the story and does do in this book.

[Willow Holiday · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible indispensable innumerable universes live within this book i think all humans need to read! feel my life changed in its burrowing digging way of seeding itself in my heart
without a doubt i recommend the audiobook to hear martin’s beautiful voice and the mayan language spoken in full ability

[Nina Hallberg]

I know he literally prefaced that he isn’t confined to anglicized notions of how one should write, but I just could not process the paragraph long, flowery sentences. I did appreciate the message, at least when I understood what I was reading

[Siddiq Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Prechtel changed my life. I have never cried so much from listening to anyone speak as I have with him. This man is a treasure for all humanity.

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

one to spend time with

[Sivani Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.

[Kay Krebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. The author had a facinating experience living with the Maya people and learning their religion from a native shaman when he was young. He is now a speaker and teacher in his own school in New Mexico.

[Brian Brogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend all of Martin Prechtel's books. My favorite nonfiction storyteller who expresses a lyrically beautiful; full, authentic, integral life. Martin illustrates admirable talent, embodying an exemplary way of being in this world in interrelation to the spirit world.

[Carah Naseem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thirteen stars.