What do you think?
Rate this book
Teya, Un Corazon De Mujer
The novel describes the short life and the sudden, but expected, assassination of a young man. This youth is the leader of an idealistic group of left-wing (communist) intellectuals who defend the rights of the poor and oppose the oppressive oligopolistic government regime that keeps itself in power by fraud and threat. Perhaps the novel was inspired by the life and death of the most beloved Yucatecan political figure, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, although Sol Ceh has said that she did not have him in mind when creating her tragic hero.
In the novel, Sol Ceh reveals to the reader the thoughts and motivations of all her principal characters. The characters include the idealistic son, who fights fiercely for the poor but has few scruples in his relationship with women; the mother who knows her son will sooner or later be killed and is resigned to the inevitable; the local political boss willing to use any means to maintain his privileges and status; and the cacique (originally an Arawak word that has come into common use throughout Latin America in reference to a leader, chief, or political boss) who rises from poverty to power through intimidation and murder. In my mind, the more interesting figure in the novel is not the young man whose final day and tragic murder we follow in detail, but the mother, Teya. It is her emotional reaction to the circumstances and to the murder of her son that is the author’s most significant focus.
The story itself is mundane. What happens in the book is something that happens with disturbing regularity in too many parts of this world. The story, however, is rescued from being ordinary by Teya, with whom the reader feels great empathy. The other characters in the book act out their parts in unsurprising ways, according to their own reasons, reasons the reader may not share but can easily understand. But Teya does not act. She is almost entirely passive, knowing what is going to happen. Teya expresses a deep fatalistic sorrow. Her son seems proud of having chosen a path to martyrdom, but it is Teya who is the reluctant, innocent victim here. She has no choice, and no way to avoid her fate. But she is admirable in accepting that fate with resignation and dignity.
The recent disappearance in Guerrero of the 43 students who were presumably murdered on their way to demonstrate against a local political boss is a reminder that opposing those who are in positions of power can be very dangerous, even today. Teya, Un Corazón de Mujer is well written, courageous, and a timely reminder of an unpleasant fact of life, in Mexico and around the world.
In the novel, Sol Ceh reveals to the reader the thoughts and motivations of all her principal characters. The characters include the idealistic son, who fights fiercely for the poor but has few scruples in his relationship with women; the mother who knows her son will sooner or later be killed and is resigned to the inevitable; the local political boss willing to use any means to maintain his privileges and status; and the cacique (originally an Arawak word that has come into common use throughout Latin America in reference to a leader, chief, or political boss) who rises from poverty to power through intimidation and murder. In my mind, the more interesting figure in the novel is not the young man whose final day and tragic murder we follow in detail, but the mother, Teya. It is her emotional reaction to the circumstances and to the murder of her son that is the author’s most significant focus.
The story itself is mundane. What happens in the book is something that happens with disturbing regularity in too many parts of this world. The story, however, is rescued from being ordinary by Teya, with whom the reader feels great empathy. The other characters in the book act out their parts in unsurprising ways, according to their own reasons, reasons the reader may not share but can easily understand. But Teya does not act. She is almost entirely passive, knowing what is going to happen. Teya expresses a deep fatalistic sorrow. Her son seems proud of having chosen a path to martyrdom, but it is Teya who is the reluctant, innocent victim here. She has no choice, and no way to avoid her fate. But she is admirable in accepting that fate with resignation and dignity.
The recent disappearance in Guerrero of the 43 students who were presumably murdered on their way to demonstrate against a local political boss is a reminder that opposing those who are in positions of power can be very dangerous, even today. Teya, Un Corazón de Mujer is well written, courageous, and a timely reminder of an unpleasant fact of life, in Mexico and around the world.
361 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2008
35 people want to read
About the author
Marisol Ceh Moo
3 books7 followersMarisol Ceh Moo is one of the new, young Mexican writers of the 21st century. She is commonly known as Sol Ceh, and was born in the town of Calotmul, Yucatan. In 2014 she won the Premio Nezahualcóyotl, a prestigious award for Mexican authors.
The Story of Sol Ceh
Sol Ceh is a woman living in two cultures, neither of which values women as highly as they do men. In addition she is Maya, in a world that does not highly value contemporary Maya culture. At an early age, as Sol Ceh has made clear in her interviews, she set out to break through the gender and cultural biases and barriers that limited her own, and her people’s, opportunities. In that she has been successful.
Since Sol Ceh published her first bilingual novel in Spanish and Maya, other Maya writers have written similar works. But Teya, Un Corazón de Mujer is the first novel written in Maya by a woman, and it is also, apparently, the first of its kind in all of Latin America. Previously, Maya literature was limited to traditional Maya legends and myths. With this novel, Sol Ceh broke new ground and opened a door for her people that gives them one more tool to show the world their worth and ability.
The Story of Sol Ceh
Sol Ceh is a woman living in two cultures, neither of which values women as highly as they do men. In addition she is Maya, in a world that does not highly value contemporary Maya culture. At an early age, as Sol Ceh has made clear in her interviews, she set out to break through the gender and cultural biases and barriers that limited her own, and her people’s, opportunities. In that she has been successful.
Since Sol Ceh published her first bilingual novel in Spanish and Maya, other Maya writers have written similar works. But Teya, Un Corazón de Mujer is the first novel written in Maya by a woman, and it is also, apparently, the first of its kind in all of Latin America. Previously, Maya literature was limited to traditional Maya legends and myths. With this novel, Sol Ceh broke new ground and opened a door for her people that gives them one more tool to show the world their worth and ability.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 22, 2021
Teya, Un Corazón de Mujer - Marisol Ceh Moo
8.1/10
This book, famous for having been published in both Spanish and Yucatec Mayan, therefore breaking with previous literary traditions, alternates between two storylines: the work and life of Emeterio, a leftist revolutionary in 20th century Mexico, and the turmoil and grief left in the wake of his assassination, as told from the perspective of his mother. The author, Marisol Ceh Moo, brings the two sides of politics into sharp contrast by demonstrating the cult-of-personality-esque political mythos through Emeterio’s larger-than-life reputation, the various Marxist idols that clutter his office, and the fear and desperation he causes in the reactionary government, then juxtaposing all this with the quiet, withdrawn manner of his mother, Teya, who is a living negation of the movement’s idealism. Where Emeterio and his comrades seek to apply Marxist principles to improve the lives of indigenous campesinos (who exist firmly outside Marx’s eurocentric, industrial vision of an urban proletariat revolution), they fail to recognize the hypocrisy of their own actions which perpetuate a different type of inequality. Emeterio’s beliefs are shaped by that of his father who, as a professor, taught his values to a class that included Teya, his eventual wife. The father, noticing that some of his students wore shoes and others didn’t, marking a socio-economic inequality between them, demanded that all his students go barefoot to alleviate this inequality. Teya had been wearing shoes. This scene shows the continuous blindspot (and thus target of Ceh Moo’s satire) of the revolutionaries within the novel. Ceh Moo does not shy away from breaking the traditional good-bad dichotomy, instead showing the characters in full light, with good and bad in all of them. In the struggle between Emeterio, the idealistic revolutionary, and Don Tiburcio, the reactionary businessman who hires Emeterio’s assassins, Ceh Moo describes them as “dos personajes que de ninguna manera significaban el bien y el mal. Los dos tenían mucho de bueno y bastante de malo” [Two characters who in no way symbolize the good and the bad. Both have much good and enough bad]. In doing so, Ceh Moo creates a world with complex characters that challenge both the reader and their preconceived notions.
8.1/10
This book, famous for having been published in both Spanish and Yucatec Mayan, therefore breaking with previous literary traditions, alternates between two storylines: the work and life of Emeterio, a leftist revolutionary in 20th century Mexico, and the turmoil and grief left in the wake of his assassination, as told from the perspective of his mother. The author, Marisol Ceh Moo, brings the two sides of politics into sharp contrast by demonstrating the cult-of-personality-esque political mythos through Emeterio’s larger-than-life reputation, the various Marxist idols that clutter his office, and the fear and desperation he causes in the reactionary government, then juxtaposing all this with the quiet, withdrawn manner of his mother, Teya, who is a living negation of the movement’s idealism. Where Emeterio and his comrades seek to apply Marxist principles to improve the lives of indigenous campesinos (who exist firmly outside Marx’s eurocentric, industrial vision of an urban proletariat revolution), they fail to recognize the hypocrisy of their own actions which perpetuate a different type of inequality. Emeterio’s beliefs are shaped by that of his father who, as a professor, taught his values to a class that included Teya, his eventual wife. The father, noticing that some of his students wore shoes and others didn’t, marking a socio-economic inequality between them, demanded that all his students go barefoot to alleviate this inequality. Teya had been wearing shoes. This scene shows the continuous blindspot (and thus target of Ceh Moo’s satire) of the revolutionaries within the novel. Ceh Moo does not shy away from breaking the traditional good-bad dichotomy, instead showing the characters in full light, with good and bad in all of them. In the struggle between Emeterio, the idealistic revolutionary, and Don Tiburcio, the reactionary businessman who hires Emeterio’s assassins, Ceh Moo describes them as “dos personajes que de ninguna manera significaban el bien y el mal. Los dos tenían mucho de bueno y bastante de malo” [Two characters who in no way symbolize the good and the bad. Both have much good and enough bad]. In doing so, Ceh Moo creates a world with complex characters that challenge both the reader and their preconceived notions.
October 5, 2018
From my Instagram account @Onebookonecountry
Teya is the mother of a martyr. She knows this even before he is killed. While the driver of the narrative is Teya’s son’s personal path, it is the mother’s passivity and resignation before his choice of martyrdom that steals the show. She is elegant and refined in her grief, and the dignity of her bearing of his destiny is what gives this book its distinctive character.
One of the most interesting aspects of this novel, though, is not related to the story at all. Sol Ceh wrote it not only in Mexico’s official Spanish, but also in its (and hers) native Maya language. By writing “X-Teya, u puksi'ik'al ko'olel” as a novel, she broke the traditions of Mayan literature of shorter stories and poetry. She also made up new words in the language to better suit the telling of a modern story using an ancient language.
There’s something powerful about holding a #BilingualEdition printed with words of an ancient language considered to be almost extinct. Especially when the author drives the modernization of this language taking it into the 21st century. Sol Ceh was the first Mayan author to win the Premio Nezahualcóyotl, a prestigious award for Mexican authors.
More North American books here #onebookNorthAmerica
More Latin American books here #onebookLatinAmerica
More Mexican books here #onebookMexico
This edition is by Conaculta
#conaculta
Teya is the mother of a martyr. She knows this even before he is killed. While the driver of the narrative is Teya’s son’s personal path, it is the mother’s passivity and resignation before his choice of martyrdom that steals the show. She is elegant and refined in her grief, and the dignity of her bearing of his destiny is what gives this book its distinctive character.
One of the most interesting aspects of this novel, though, is not related to the story at all. Sol Ceh wrote it not only in Mexico’s official Spanish, but also in its (and hers) native Maya language. By writing “X-Teya, u puksi'ik'al ko'olel” as a novel, she broke the traditions of Mayan literature of shorter stories and poetry. She also made up new words in the language to better suit the telling of a modern story using an ancient language.
There’s something powerful about holding a #BilingualEdition printed with words of an ancient language considered to be almost extinct. Especially when the author drives the modernization of this language taking it into the 21st century. Sol Ceh was the first Mayan author to win the Premio Nezahualcóyotl, a prestigious award for Mexican authors.
More North American books here #onebookNorthAmerica
More Latin American books here #onebookLatinAmerica
More Mexican books here #onebookMexico
This edition is by Conaculta
#conaculta
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews