What do you think?
Rate this book
Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico
The Maya created one of the world's most brilliant civilizations, famous for its art, astronomy, and deep fascination with the mystery of time. Despite collapse in the ninth century, Spanish invasion in the sixteenth, and civil war in the twentieth, eight million people in Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico speak Mayan languages and maintain their resilient culture to this day. Traveling through Central America's jungles and mountains, Ronald Wright explores the ancient roots of the Maya, their recent troubles, and prospects for survival. Embracing history, anthropology, politics, and literature, Time Among the Maya is a riveting journey through past magnificence and the study of an enduring civilization with much to teach the present. "Wright's unpretentious narrative blends anthropology, archaeology, history, and politics with his own entertaining excursions and encounters." -- The New Yorker; "Time Among the Maya shows Wright to be far more than a mere storyteller or descriptive writer. He is an historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures." -- Jan Morris, The Independent (London).
464 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1989
21 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
About the author
Ronald Wright
47 books158 followersRonald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the Sunday Times, and the New York Times.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
Read
May 11, 2019Wright uses the format of a journey through Belize, Guatemala and into the south-east of Mexico to explore the world of the Maya.
The Maya had a sophisticated city-state based civilisation that reached its urban peak in its so called Classic period, between circa 250 AD and circa 900 AD. New Maya states emerged after this period, but on a smaller, modest scale (at least as far as urban centres were concerned) until the Spanish conquest. Maya people, speaking a group of twenty related languages may form the majority population of Guatemala (or may not) and also live in neighbouring areas of Belize and Mexico.
Wright's journey from one Maya city site to another allows him to explore something the archaeology of a civilisation that we are still learning about, and the fate of the Maya since the conquest. This is both a bleak story but also one of survival and adaptation in both cases.
Temple I at Tikal
The Classic Maya period was marked by great city complexes with monumental architecture using commemorative stone Stela to record events with a range of dates in the past and future greater than estimates of the age of the universe at the time this book was written. The Maya appear to have really liked significant dates, as in English days and months are named after gods, so too in the Maya calendar gods were associated with days, weeks and years, unlike the English system these were the same gods and it as held that each god naturally influenced the day, week or year that had their name hence their system allowed for super agglomerations of divine influence suggesting highly auspicious or inauspicious dates in the past or future. At the time this book was written, Maya calendar experts still maintained this system in the highlands of Guatamala. The population seems to have been very large and the jungle seems to have been largely cleared and turned over to agriculture. The whole edifice collapsed - environmental collapse intertwined with a political and social breakdown is the leading theory. This is all very interesting from a systems point of view.
Despite this a sophisticated calendar system survived and was, perhaps still is, maintained as an oral tradition. Aspects of religious life and belief have survived, mostly syncretically interwoven with Catholicism - which conveniently also has a Holy Cross among its symbols this was easily understood as analogous to Maya belief in a sacred world tree something traditionally shown as a cross in their Art, but with the odd pocket of non-Christian belief in areas without extractable resources.
As in Hidden Cities there is a political dimension to the Maya heritage, it's great for tourism but on the other hand the Maya are on the margins of what are still colonial states. A position that can be summarised as souvenirs yes, equal rights no. Power and wealth in the post-conquest and after independence relied on exploiting the labour of the native population - ie even in the twentieth century native people were legally required to work for free for 150 days for landlords or be classed as vagrants. The influence of the United States particularly since the 1954 coup in Guatemala has been particularly baleful, intensifying the pattern of Maya being warred over, obliged to serve as soldiers in feuding between those of Spanish descent and the use of atrocities to win over hearts and minds.
The Maya conception of time has a cyclical element and the violence of the conquistadors seems to mirror the violence of later armies in Wright's account.
Beyond the physical violence there is also the difficulty of preserving culture in the face of incoming evangelicals, a push for acculturation and the targeting of rights groups by death squads. The situation in Belize and Mexico, although the state sponsored violence is missing there is still the seductive pull of wealthier and more powerful cultures.
But the reading isn't entirely grim. There is also survival, such as the groups in Mexico who still cluster about the Holy Speaking Cross which provided advice on how to maintain independence from Mexico in the second half of the nineteenth century, some traditional forms of worship and faith survive despite changes in Catholicism. Wright's attempts to make contact with individuals are limited because although he spoke Spanish, he didn't speaking any of the Maya languages. In that sense his observations were limited and one can feel the gap between him and many of the Maya he meets. The book works though as a geographical and cultural introduction. There are footnotes, an index and a bibliography. Writers and researchers are credited in the text. Wright's book is something of a sampler. There are threads to seize on to and follow further if you want to know more on the archaeology, the contemporary highland Maya in Guatemala, folklore or the lost world of Quintana Roo.
The Maya had a sophisticated city-state based civilisation that reached its urban peak in its so called Classic period, between circa 250 AD and circa 900 AD. New Maya states emerged after this period, but on a smaller, modest scale (at least as far as urban centres were concerned) until the Spanish conquest. Maya people, speaking a group of twenty related languages may form the majority population of Guatemala (or may not) and also live in neighbouring areas of Belize and Mexico.
Wright's journey from one Maya city site to another allows him to explore something the archaeology of a civilisation that we are still learning about, and the fate of the Maya since the conquest. This is both a bleak story but also one of survival and adaptation in both cases.
Temple I at Tikal
The Classic Maya period was marked by great city complexes with monumental architecture using commemorative stone Stela to record events with a range of dates in the past and future greater than estimates of the age of the universe at the time this book was written. The Maya appear to have really liked significant dates, as in English days and months are named after gods, so too in the Maya calendar gods were associated with days, weeks and years, unlike the English system these were the same gods and it as held that each god naturally influenced the day, week or year that had their name hence their system allowed for super agglomerations of divine influence suggesting highly auspicious or inauspicious dates in the past or future. At the time this book was written, Maya calendar experts still maintained this system in the highlands of Guatamala. The population seems to have been very large and the jungle seems to have been largely cleared and turned over to agriculture. The whole edifice collapsed - environmental collapse intertwined with a political and social breakdown is the leading theory. This is all very interesting from a systems point of view.
Despite this a sophisticated calendar system survived and was, perhaps still is, maintained as an oral tradition. Aspects of religious life and belief have survived, mostly syncretically interwoven with Catholicism - which conveniently also has a Holy Cross among its symbols this was easily understood as analogous to Maya belief in a sacred world tree something traditionally shown as a cross in their Art, but with the odd pocket of non-Christian belief in areas without extractable resources.
As in Hidden Cities there is a political dimension to the Maya heritage, it's great for tourism but on the other hand the Maya are on the margins of what are still colonial states. A position that can be summarised as souvenirs yes, equal rights no. Power and wealth in the post-conquest and after independence relied on exploiting the labour of the native population - ie even in the twentieth century native people were legally required to work for free for 150 days for landlords or be classed as vagrants. The influence of the United States particularly since the 1954 coup in Guatemala has been particularly baleful, intensifying the pattern of Maya being warred over, obliged to serve as soldiers in feuding between those of Spanish descent and the use of atrocities to win over hearts and minds.
The Maya conception of time has a cyclical element and the violence of the conquistadors seems to mirror the violence of later armies in Wright's account.
Beyond the physical violence there is also the difficulty of preserving culture in the face of incoming evangelicals, a push for acculturation and the targeting of rights groups by death squads. The situation in Belize and Mexico, although the state sponsored violence is missing there is still the seductive pull of wealthier and more powerful cultures.
But the reading isn't entirely grim. There is also survival, such as the groups in Mexico who still cluster about the Holy Speaking Cross which provided advice on how to maintain independence from Mexico in the second half of the nineteenth century, some traditional forms of worship and faith survive despite changes in Catholicism. Wright's attempts to make contact with individuals are limited because although he spoke Spanish, he didn't speaking any of the Maya languages. In that sense his observations were limited and one can feel the gap between him and many of the Maya he meets. The book works though as a geographical and cultural introduction. There are footnotes, an index and a bibliography. Writers and researchers are credited in the text. Wright's book is something of a sampler. There are threads to seize on to and follow further if you want to know more on the archaeology, the contemporary highland Maya in Guatemala, folklore or the lost world of Quintana Roo.
November 20, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book which is so much more than your average travel book. Before leaving for this trip Wright pretty much devours every book on the Maya that he could find (he finds more books on his journey and consumes them too), this knowledge is well used when giving a history of the Mayan Culture. The book can be heavy going at times but this is well balanced by the people he meets, their love of life and sense of humour gives the perfect bit of respite before the reader is taken on the next part of this educational journey.
This book is another example of just how bad my education was at school and how much historical amnesia there is in the UK. I knew the Spanish had caused a lot of damage to this civilisation but I don’t think I grasped just how bad it was, reading about how individual cities were destroyed in such an awful manner was harrowing and becomes more personal than thinking they went over and nearly wiped them out. England and the USA managed to get in on the act too, causing more wars and getting murderers into power. There is so much killing in these three countries, I’m amazed there is anybody still left standing and that shows just how clever they were, most would succumb to the religious terrors that the Spanish brought with them, but the Maya adapted Christianity in such a way that they were able to keep many of their beliefs.
Wright spends a lot of his time looking into the Maya calendar and gives quite a comprehensive account of how it all works, I found this very more interesting than expected, it comes across as very complex, but after a while once you get your head around it, it ain’t too much different to what we use today, they have their cycles like we do, even better is their days are named, have symbols and meanings for the day.
The book was first published in 1989 and this edition has an Afterword giving an update for the few years after people thought the Mayan Calendar claimed the world would end and it is sad to see things haven’t changed much, still so much death is happening.
This has to be the go to book for finding out out Mayan Culture, Wright has worked tirelessly to produce a comprehensive account of the people and their lands.
Blog Review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
This book is another example of just how bad my education was at school and how much historical amnesia there is in the UK. I knew the Spanish had caused a lot of damage to this civilisation but I don’t think I grasped just how bad it was, reading about how individual cities were destroyed in such an awful manner was harrowing and becomes more personal than thinking they went over and nearly wiped them out. England and the USA managed to get in on the act too, causing more wars and getting murderers into power. There is so much killing in these three countries, I’m amazed there is anybody still left standing and that shows just how clever they were, most would succumb to the religious terrors that the Spanish brought with them, but the Maya adapted Christianity in such a way that they were able to keep many of their beliefs.
Wright spends a lot of his time looking into the Maya calendar and gives quite a comprehensive account of how it all works, I found this very more interesting than expected, it comes across as very complex, but after a while once you get your head around it, it ain’t too much different to what we use today, they have their cycles like we do, even better is their days are named, have symbols and meanings for the day.
The book was first published in 1989 and this edition has an Afterword giving an update for the few years after people thought the Mayan Calendar claimed the world would end and it is sad to see things haven’t changed much, still so much death is happening.
This has to be the go to book for finding out out Mayan Culture, Wright has worked tirelessly to produce a comprehensive account of the people and their lands.
Blog Review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
January 20, 2021
The Maya were a people who inhabited a large chunk of central America. In their time they from 2000 b.c. to the late 900s, they had a highly developed culture and were known for their art, astronomical system and calendar as well as their architecture, art and their sophisticated writing system known as the logosyllabic script. After the collapse there were still people living in the region, even though some of the cities were still in use, many were abandoned. In the early 1500s, the first Spanish arrived and after a number of battles, they finally succumbed to the Spanish in 1697.
Even though they were defeated the people still survived and the remnants of their great civilisation slowly fell into ruin. The region is now separate countries, Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, but there are still seven million people that speak the old Mayan languages and whilst hey have suffered suppression for hundreds of years they still maintain their unique culture. This place and people have long fascinated Wright, he read every book he could about them prior to going there and from that made a list of places that he wanted to go on his travels there and he was soon on his way to Belize.
Heading south over the Hondo River in a battered old school bus he watches as the people change from the smaller Mexican people into colossal black matrons in floral bonnets. Pausing at Orange Walk Town, the police grab a passenger and march him off, wright heads to the Vietnam Bar for a drink before getting back on. The sugar plantations give way to wilder country and the radio on the bus is playing calypso. A little while passes and they enter the outskirts of Belize Town, driving through rusty corrugated iron corridors. Splashing through muddy puddles. It was time to find his hotel.
Moving on from Belize he heads over the disputed border into Guatemala. The officials are not the slightest bit interested in his luggage but do take the opportunity to charge him five quetzals for the tourist card that is clearly marked with a price of one quetzal. He crosses the bridge to the slightly seedy town of Melchor de Mencos with the hope of getting the camioneta. The bus is smelly and packed, he gets some fresh air when they are stopped are various checkpoints but the journey stops when they stuck. He hitches a lift with two American preachers from Florida and they drop him at a checkpoint where he decides that the next bus along will determine his destination for the day.
At the end of the vee rear the perfect cone of Volcan Agua, framed like the foresight of a rifle with a gun barrel of straight tarmac running towards it. The sky is clear, a deep steel blue, and the volcano wears a wreath of vapour that forms at the summit and streams from its leeward side the way a comets tail flees from the sun.
The third section of the book takes place in the southern part of Guatemala. He arrives in the city in an old 1950s Fokker that flies through the mountains rather than over them. He looks down on huts covered with pine shingles on the roofs. This is the fourth city, the others having been flattened by earthquakes volcanos and the Spanish. It is still a troubled country, a place where the native Indian have been oppressed by the white elite and it is in constant political turmoil. He is there for the ruins though and is being joined by a friend to see the structures of Quiriguá nestled amongst the bananas.
Finally, he ends up in Mexico, weary from the journey and then unable to sleep because of the maids crashing and banging and the squawking of the three parrots in reception. After a breakfast of Huevos rancheros, he heads to the New World Archaeological Foundation. He is meeting Suzanne and she shows him the various artefacts they found before leaving him in the library to lose himself amongst the books. In some of the towns, almost everyone is in the local dress, and the markets are an orderly bustle. In Chamula, for example, all the properties are owned by the Maya, and outsiders are banned from living in the centre of town. In the ruins of Bonampak that were rediscovered in 1946, he is there to see the murals. Even though they are covered with scaffolding they shine bright with colours and energy; just being in the presence of them is enough to generate a physical tingle.
When we get back to the lookout with the nine verses, the sun is about to drop off the edge of the world. Silver light pours from a chink in the overcast, painting fans between tiers of charcoal cloud.
He is primarily in the region for the archelogy and to absorb the history of the places, but what you, the reader, actually end up learning the most about is the people that live there now. His heart really is at home in this place and with the Maya. His conciliatory manner and endless curiosity draw out the best stories that they have to tell. It is beautifully written too, his extensive knowledge of the history of the places that he visits, helps add the extra depth to the prose. Well worth reading.
Even though they were defeated the people still survived and the remnants of their great civilisation slowly fell into ruin. The region is now separate countries, Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, but there are still seven million people that speak the old Mayan languages and whilst hey have suffered suppression for hundreds of years they still maintain their unique culture. This place and people have long fascinated Wright, he read every book he could about them prior to going there and from that made a list of places that he wanted to go on his travels there and he was soon on his way to Belize.
Heading south over the Hondo River in a battered old school bus he watches as the people change from the smaller Mexican people into colossal black matrons in floral bonnets. Pausing at Orange Walk Town, the police grab a passenger and march him off, wright heads to the Vietnam Bar for a drink before getting back on. The sugar plantations give way to wilder country and the radio on the bus is playing calypso. A little while passes and they enter the outskirts of Belize Town, driving through rusty corrugated iron corridors. Splashing through muddy puddles. It was time to find his hotel.
Moving on from Belize he heads over the disputed border into Guatemala. The officials are not the slightest bit interested in his luggage but do take the opportunity to charge him five quetzals for the tourist card that is clearly marked with a price of one quetzal. He crosses the bridge to the slightly seedy town of Melchor de Mencos with the hope of getting the camioneta. The bus is smelly and packed, he gets some fresh air when they are stopped are various checkpoints but the journey stops when they stuck. He hitches a lift with two American preachers from Florida and they drop him at a checkpoint where he decides that the next bus along will determine his destination for the day.
At the end of the vee rear the perfect cone of Volcan Agua, framed like the foresight of a rifle with a gun barrel of straight tarmac running towards it. The sky is clear, a deep steel blue, and the volcano wears a wreath of vapour that forms at the summit and streams from its leeward side the way a comets tail flees from the sun.
The third section of the book takes place in the southern part of Guatemala. He arrives in the city in an old 1950s Fokker that flies through the mountains rather than over them. He looks down on huts covered with pine shingles on the roofs. This is the fourth city, the others having been flattened by earthquakes volcanos and the Spanish. It is still a troubled country, a place where the native Indian have been oppressed by the white elite and it is in constant political turmoil. He is there for the ruins though and is being joined by a friend to see the structures of Quiriguá nestled amongst the bananas.
Finally, he ends up in Mexico, weary from the journey and then unable to sleep because of the maids crashing and banging and the squawking of the three parrots in reception. After a breakfast of Huevos rancheros, he heads to the New World Archaeological Foundation. He is meeting Suzanne and she shows him the various artefacts they found before leaving him in the library to lose himself amongst the books. In some of the towns, almost everyone is in the local dress, and the markets are an orderly bustle. In Chamula, for example, all the properties are owned by the Maya, and outsiders are banned from living in the centre of town. In the ruins of Bonampak that were rediscovered in 1946, he is there to see the murals. Even though they are covered with scaffolding they shine bright with colours and energy; just being in the presence of them is enough to generate a physical tingle.
When we get back to the lookout with the nine verses, the sun is about to drop off the edge of the world. Silver light pours from a chink in the overcast, painting fans between tiers of charcoal cloud.
He is primarily in the region for the archelogy and to absorb the history of the places, but what you, the reader, actually end up learning the most about is the people that live there now. His heart really is at home in this place and with the Maya. His conciliatory manner and endless curiosity draw out the best stories that they have to tell. It is beautifully written too, his extensive knowledge of the history of the places that he visits, helps add the extra depth to the prose. Well worth reading.
October 16, 2016
I do not give many Reviews but this book is worthy of it and has been one of the books I've most recommended to any traveler to Central America. Ronald wright is a talented author with a knack of helping one to see the big Picture! What has taken place since the time of the conquest? how did the Spanish invasion change the course of history; What really happened out there and how does it still influence current Politics today. And for anyone like me with a keen interest in the Maya this Book also covers with great insight the lives of the Maya, their cosmology, the influence of Catholicism and how it has been incorporated into the Mayan traditions whilst giving detailed information about each of the Mayan ruins that can still be visited today..... Ronald Wright traveled to Guatemala during the 80's towards the end of the upheaval that left many thousands dead and this book makes a great travel story as you find yourself following parts of the same trail in which he took leaving you with an enriched experience of your Central American Travels....
February 21, 2016
The book is good for someone who would like to know what Mayan history and current life are like. It gives a decent insight into what the Mayans have gone through from wars, to plagues, to massacres. It also sheds light on how they adapted to Christianity by incorporating it rather than fighting it. I personally was interested in the parts talking about Guatemala and describing the discrimination between Maya and Ladinos. History in general is of interest to me, especially drawing similarities between histories of different groups separated by geography and time.
On the other hand, the book was, in my opinion, too details and boring at times. There was too much talking of the author's conversations, the Mayan calendar, and describing temples and streets ...etc. To me, that had little value, although I am sure some other people might be interested in that part. Also, the book could have used more maps, pictures, and diagrams for illustrations.
On the other hand, the book was, in my opinion, too details and boring at times. There was too much talking of the author's conversations, the Mayan calendar, and describing temples and streets ...etc. To me, that had little value, although I am sure some other people might be interested in that part. Also, the book could have used more maps, pictures, and diagrams for illustrations.
March 8, 2010
I checked this book out of the library with a mind to read only the short chapter on Belize in preparation for a trip...and couldn't put it down. The author smoothly weaves fascinating facts from archaeology, history and modern day political science into a very readable journal of his travels. He helps the reader to better appreciate the incredible accomplishments of the ancient Mayan people and to sympathize with their present-day plight. Wright's combination of knowledge, passion and good writing was such a great formula for an enjoyable read that I hardly realized how much learning I was absorbing along the way.
May 5, 2012
I'm a big fan of Mayan ruins, so this was a must read. It was interesting to see someone's take on sites I've visited.
Wright's theme is how the Maya have been historically repressed and fragmented, with a focus on Guatemala's 30-year civil war. I was in Guatemala about two years after the harrowing times Wright describes; Mayan men were later rounded up and burned alive in village squares we had visited two months earlier. In truth, the descriptions of the war were just too painful for me to read sometimes. But, ultimately, Wright's message is that the Maya (and their languages and religion) still endure despite the odds.
Wright's theme is how the Maya have been historically repressed and fragmented, with a focus on Guatemala's 30-year civil war. I was in Guatemala about two years after the harrowing times Wright describes; Mayan men were later rounded up and burned alive in village squares we had visited two months earlier. In truth, the descriptions of the war were just too painful for me to read sometimes. But, ultimately, Wright's message is that the Maya (and their languages and religion) still endure despite the odds.
December 10, 2019
Ronald Wright has crafted a comprehensive review of the Maya using a clever title that covers the author’s journey through (then 1985) contemporary Maya realm, reaching into recent (100+ years) rebellious past and back one thousand plus years of the time of the ancient Maya while capturing the notion of the Maya concept of Time. When I first read the book in 1991 I thought it the best Canadian book ever written. It may well have been so at the time. However I found this second read through (in 2019) a bit of a slog. It shouldn’t have been as from 1991-1995 I visited most of the places mentioned in the book (save Bonampak, Cozumel and Uxmal) but did not relish the revisitation.
To be sure Wright savours and shares his encounters with unusual characters where ever he goes. One marvels on his recapturing the nuances of those happenstances in his retelling. One encounter near Bonampak: “Len told everyone we were doing ARCHAEOLOGY. From the way he delivered the word (normally a dusty sound) you could tell he equated it with safari, serendipity.” Len was surprised how many tourists got that far: “They’re willing to go through all that pain just to see some ruins.”
At Uxmal some visitors say to the waiter, pointing at Wright’s dinner “We will have what they’re having.” Five minutes later there is frantic gobbling followed by a gringo scream.
Wright presents the duality of Maya beliefs: “…war and peace, life and death, heaven and underworld, good and bad were all in the nature of God.” (page 172)
To make it clear of the hazard of being Maya in Guatemala, after reaching Mexico from his sojourn through Guatemala, the author writes: “…it seems now, after a week away, a microcosm of all the ugliness and beauty in the world; of stupidity and wisdom; evil and good – endless Manichean opposites, and darkness with the upper hand. Things may not be wonderful in Mexico, especially for Indians, but almost all the people I’ve met here – the weavers and writers, the Chamulas who cleared off the land, the Maya officials and policemen, the liberal bishop – if this was Guatemala these people would be dead.” (page 256)
Wright sums up the Maya world view: “The Maya regard a ruined city the way we regard a parked car. It’s desolation is temporary; it has an owner or owners; it is capable of life in the future as in the past.” (page 320)
To be sure Wright savours and shares his encounters with unusual characters where ever he goes. One marvels on his recapturing the nuances of those happenstances in his retelling. One encounter near Bonampak: “Len told everyone we were doing ARCHAEOLOGY. From the way he delivered the word (normally a dusty sound) you could tell he equated it with safari, serendipity.” Len was surprised how many tourists got that far: “They’re willing to go through all that pain just to see some ruins.”
At Uxmal some visitors say to the waiter, pointing at Wright’s dinner “We will have what they’re having.” Five minutes later there is frantic gobbling followed by a gringo scream.
Wright presents the duality of Maya beliefs: “…war and peace, life and death, heaven and underworld, good and bad were all in the nature of God.” (page 172)
To make it clear of the hazard of being Maya in Guatemala, after reaching Mexico from his sojourn through Guatemala, the author writes: “…it seems now, after a week away, a microcosm of all the ugliness and beauty in the world; of stupidity and wisdom; evil and good – endless Manichean opposites, and darkness with the upper hand. Things may not be wonderful in Mexico, especially for Indians, but almost all the people I’ve met here – the weavers and writers, the Chamulas who cleared off the land, the Maya officials and policemen, the liberal bishop – if this was Guatemala these people would be dead.” (page 256)
Wright sums up the Maya world view: “The Maya regard a ruined city the way we regard a parked car. It’s desolation is temporary; it has an owner or owners; it is capable of life in the future as in the past.” (page 320)
October 4, 2022
It's probably a good thing I didn't read this 1989 book -- though I probably had it -- before I traveled to Guatemala and Belize in 1995 because I might never have gone. The book's tales of guerrilla wars, atrocities and tourists getting robbed are downright scary. Gives a bad mark to the Eisenhower administration as well, which toppled a nascent democracy just because the gigantic United Fruit Company didn't like the looks of what was happening.
As it was, my trip didn't go too badly. Tour groups were often quite small, often just me, and never larger than about 15. My first night in Guatemala City the hotel people told me not to go out in the evening because they couldn't vouch for my safety. I felt cheated by the idea, so I defied them and walked the high street to the end of the urban area and back. No problems, though it was rather boring and few people were out.
I was cheated by the currency exchange people in the hotel who gave me some cash that was no longer valid, the currency having been devalued. This was something virtually no tourist would be able to figure out, until they tried to spend it, that is. I should have just destroyed the currency so that people couldn't perpetuate this trick on foreigners, but I was so incensed that here I was bringing my money to this country that nobody wanted to travel to and still they felt that they had to cheat me. I asked my tour guide for help. He wouldn't take it himself, but he did know someone who was willing to change it for me and did.
I got to Belize by flying via El Salvador. On the way, there was rumor of a bomb on board, so we had to wait while they put everyone's luggage on the tarmac and then we had to go out and identify what was ours and then wait some more while they put it all back on again. Really an anxious time when you don't know Spanish and have no idea what is going on.
Other incidents:
- my watch died in the extremely humid Tikal region
- the tour jeep stuck in the mud on the way to Xunantunich, so I never reached that site, sadly
- one day in Guatemala the tour guide elected to bring about ten family members along
Overall, I would still say it was a good trip. Even went on some dates with other tourists. In a curious development, I found out in Belize that my usual tour guide had three wives, none of whom knew about the others. I asked him how he could possibly handle the Christmas holidays, which were upcoming at that point. He just said he made himself scarce around those times. Three wives weren't even enough for him. He was even flirting with the receptionist where I would book my day trips. I considered telling her, but didn't. He even made a pass at a young, blonde tourist in a narrow tunnel. Bad guy.
Anyway, this was a great book in its time. It's only downside now, as with all journalistic efforts, is that it is no longer up to date.
As it was, my trip didn't go too badly. Tour groups were often quite small, often just me, and never larger than about 15. My first night in Guatemala City the hotel people told me not to go out in the evening because they couldn't vouch for my safety. I felt cheated by the idea, so I defied them and walked the high street to the end of the urban area and back. No problems, though it was rather boring and few people were out.
I was cheated by the currency exchange people in the hotel who gave me some cash that was no longer valid, the currency having been devalued. This was something virtually no tourist would be able to figure out, until they tried to spend it, that is. I should have just destroyed the currency so that people couldn't perpetuate this trick on foreigners, but I was so incensed that here I was bringing my money to this country that nobody wanted to travel to and still they felt that they had to cheat me. I asked my tour guide for help. He wouldn't take it himself, but he did know someone who was willing to change it for me and did.
I got to Belize by flying via El Salvador. On the way, there was rumor of a bomb on board, so we had to wait while they put everyone's luggage on the tarmac and then we had to go out and identify what was ours and then wait some more while they put it all back on again. Really an anxious time when you don't know Spanish and have no idea what is going on.
Other incidents:
- my watch died in the extremely humid Tikal region
- the tour jeep stuck in the mud on the way to Xunantunich, so I never reached that site, sadly
- one day in Guatemala the tour guide elected to bring about ten family members along
Overall, I would still say it was a good trip. Even went on some dates with other tourists. In a curious development, I found out in Belize that my usual tour guide had three wives, none of whom knew about the others. I asked him how he could possibly handle the Christmas holidays, which were upcoming at that point. He just said he made himself scarce around those times. Three wives weren't even enough for him. He was even flirting with the receptionist where I would book my day trips. I considered telling her, but didn't. He even made a pass at a young, blonde tourist in a narrow tunnel. Bad guy.
Anyway, this was a great book in its time. It's only downside now, as with all journalistic efforts, is that it is no longer up to date.
December 5, 2018
I first read this book many years ago, but since I am returning to visit the Maya soon, I decided to give it another look. I remember loving Ronald Wright's Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico and the re-read confirmed my initial opinion.
What I liked about Wright is that so many of his opinions issued at a time when Maya archeology was in a state of flux have proven to be correct. Initially, the book was written when J. Eric S. Thompson ruled the world of Maya archeology like a North Korean Kim, claiming that, except for the glyphs relating to the calendar, the rest of the language was rubbish. Wright saw that the Mayan glyphs did in fact have meaning and have given the Maya people a history, especially of their Classic Era (AD 250-900).
Even though it was originally copyrighted in 1989, I still think Wright's book is a sine qua non for travelers planning to visit Belize, Guatemala, or Maya Mexico.
What I liked about Wright is that so many of his opinions issued at a time when Maya archeology was in a state of flux have proven to be correct. Initially, the book was written when J. Eric S. Thompson ruled the world of Maya archeology like a North Korean Kim, claiming that, except for the glyphs relating to the calendar, the rest of the language was rubbish. Wright saw that the Mayan glyphs did in fact have meaning and have given the Maya people a history, especially of their Classic Era (AD 250-900).
Even though it was originally copyrighted in 1989, I still think Wright's book is a sine qua non for travelers planning to visit Belize, Guatemala, or Maya Mexico.
April 12, 2017
This book was originally written in 1989, and it does not hold up.
June 12, 2023
I first read this book thirty years ago, around the time that I travelled to Yucatán myself. I enjoyed it then and find that I still do now. Wright follows a route very similar to that of John Lloyd Stephens, starting from Belize and going through the Petén, Guatemala, Chiapas, and ending in Yucatán. He, of course, also visits sites that were not known to Stephens, such as Tikál and Bonampak. There is a good deal about the sorry political mess in Guatemala in the 1970s and 1980s (just as Stephens covered the civil wars of the 1830s and 1840s, plus ça change). Wright is at his best when tracing the survival of Mayan customs into the present. He visits and describes many sites; the descriptions are fairly vivid but would be helped by illustrations. He also interacts with many Maya during his travels. The ancient Mayan calendars, the daykeepers, and their rituals are a running theme through the book. The Maya were obsessed by time, calculating dates millions of years into the past and the future. At various points Wright explains how the calendars (notably the Long Count and the Tzolkin) work, the meanings and significance of day names, and the extent to which they are preserved among the Maya of today. There are interviews with Mayan daykeepers and shamans, and accounts of rituals which Wright was allowed to attend. Wright also talks about the Mayan language at length.
One of the pleasures of reading a travel book about places you have visited yourself is comparing experiences. Unfortunately for me, Wright gives short shrift to the places with which I am more familiar (Tulum and Cobá). He did eat at Los Almendros in Tikul and Mérida, which brought back pleasant memories of a dinner at the Cancun branch (opposite the bullring). Great traditional Yucateco food!
This book is well written, both informative and enjoyable, although now a bit dated.
One of the pleasures of reading a travel book about places you have visited yourself is comparing experiences. Unfortunately for me, Wright gives short shrift to the places with which I am more familiar (Tulum and Cobá). He did eat at Los Almendros in Tikul and Mérida, which brought back pleasant memories of a dinner at the Cancun branch (opposite the bullring). Great traditional Yucateco food!
This book is well written, both informative and enjoyable, although now a bit dated.
March 10, 2022
I came across this travel classic after writing an essay published in ELAND Press and as a token of appreciation, the editor offered any three of their books. Naturally, my first choice was the book with the cover of the iconic Santo Tomas church of Chichicastenango which is filled with a mix of Indigenous flowers and women in traditional garb (traje), and the smell of incense emanating from the catholic church which often has chickens being sacrificed on the top. Very appropriate for a book that covers both the lives and culture of today’s Maya culture but also the complicated culture and religious nuances. A travel book that covers both the Old and New World simultaneously.
Although I was managing programs in Sierra Leone, West Africa when the author wrote his book, I’ve traveled to many of the places he describes, including the unforgettable hotel Santa Tomas where the author and team stayed,” …There’s hot water, colonial-style furniture, even a corner fireplace and a stack of logs. The room is arranged around patios full of flowers, stone fountains, and parrots on perches…”
But he adds an important fiat which he also pursues throughout the book, “…I should be a delightful place, but now it feels tainted. According to human rights organizations, there were fifty-four massacres in El Quiche during 1982 alone; more than three thousand civilians were killed.” As is the case throughout the book, he provides the source for this disturbing reality—in this case, a report published by the “Guatemalan Church in Exile.” The author traveled through some of the hardest-hit areas such as Nebaj, and Uspantán in the Department of Quiche, areas I’d worked in and around for many years.
He begins each chapter with Maya glyphs/script and an explanation of their meaning. He also provides maps, a Glossary, Bibliography, and Further Readings—a very comprehensive presentation.
Although I’ve studied the Maya and Guatemala extensively over the years and have a degree in Latin American studies, written extensively in my book/essays, I’ve rarely found such a mix of the literary and the historic materials in this book. Here’s his description of the area surrounding the Santo Tomas hotel in Chichicastenango:
Our room looks out on the canyons and the magnificent pine-bristled hills that climb out of them and stride toward the horizon. The cloud has lifted from the western mountains, allowing the sun to throw a weak coppery light on dark trees. Bright green clearings glow on the hillside wherever a farmer has a patch of young corn…
And of a Maya shaman-priest, worshiping at a family shrine, “I notice other plumes of smoke, blue against the dirty clouds, rising from small fields higher up in the mountains. Apart from the worshipers, everything is still; one has the feeling of being in an enchanted place, a land of ancient numina.”.
The author takes the reader to Tikal, “Here on their tallest building, in their greatest metropolis, I’m at the center of the Maya world” and describes the panoramic setting as follows:
From the top, the forest stretches to the horizon on all sides, diaphanous waves of mist washing across it like an ocean swell. The dark canopy, showing through in lacy troughs, hints at bottomless green depths, and from these rises the steep islands of the five great pyramids…
The author transported me to the ruins of Iximché which I’ve visited many times outside of Tejutla on the Pan American highway, “Iximché is a tranquil park, about a mile long and up to a quarter-mile wide. Remains of temples, palace platforms, and two ballcourts stand whitely among well-mowed lawns. Stands of ocote and Caribbean pine cover what were once suburbs and the steep cliffs protecting the Cakchiquel stronghold. A raven’s croak echoes in the woods…”
The tone of the journey through the Guatemalan takes on a different tone as the author learns of the devastating period of violence in Guatemala which he witnesses firsthand as he traveled through in the early 1980s. The “Afterwards” of 2020 version published by Eland Press refers to the United Nations Truth Commission in 1999 which summed up the impact as, “…93% of civilian killings between 1961 and 1996—more than 200,000 all told—were the work of Guatemala state forces, often with the United States and other foreign support. More than four-fifths of the victims were Maya…”
Wright provides the backdrop of the circumstances which lead to this level of killing by the Kaibiles, or “Tigers” crack counterinsurgency troops modeled on the Green Berets, with this responsorial chant at a training camp:
What does a Kaibil eat?
FLESH”
What kind of flesh?
HUMAN!
What kind of flesh?
COMMUNIST…
The author quotes a report that a survivor of the July 1982 massacre at the village of San Francisco said he saw a soldier cut out the heart of a warm corpse and put it into his mouth. The real tragedy is the term Kaibiles (a Mayan, Mam leader) has been appropriated to describe a group composed basically of non-Mayan “Ladinos”. “The atrocities allegedly committed by them and other army units, are like the early accounts of Nazi horrors, strain the belief of anyone living far from the social climate in which they took place. But reports are many and detailed…”
The violence impacted all levels of Guatemalan society as well. One of the author’s stories brought back memories of my visits to the coffee plantation on the southern slopes of the Atitlan Volcano, San Francisco Miramar owned by my wife’s grandfather. The area was partially occupied by the guerrilla group ORPA, so they’d come in during the day to talk with the workers followed in the afternoon by members of the Guatemalan army. In this case, an honorary consul of Norway lost his life when his small plane landed at the neighboring Finca Panamá for a visit and was attacked by members of ORPA who thought the flight was part of a military operation. It was a wild time, and the Norwegian consul was in the wrong place and the wrong time which could happen to anyone.
I always appreciate the insights a British-born traveler like Wright brings when describing the role of the U.S. in violence. United Fruit and the U.S. government justified much of the killing due to a “communist threat,” which the author sums up as, “…The political current flows south not north. The idea that Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Guatemala might spread some ideological contagion northward through Mexico to the gringo empire is the most ludicrous paranoia, Unfortunately for Central America, the United States suffers from what Carlos Fuentes has called “unabashed historical amnesia.”
What impressed me the most about this book was the author’s ability to pinpoint some of the key issues which impacted the countries he visited in the 1980s and continue to influence the situation in Central America today. He points out that Guatemala, like most countries in Latin America, has a paper country and a real one. Guatemala has the paper Guatemala—constitution, as a system of justice and regular free elections while the “real” Guatemala is,” …selfish interests seize power and hold it by corruption and terror.” The two countries pull in opposite directions—the one belongs to the military regime the other to insurgents; one is urban, the other rural; one depends on infrastructure—roads, airstrips, open fields- the other thrive in the wilderness. This is not a new pattern: it has been the fundamental structure of the Guatemalan conquest-state since 1524.”
The author calls “Ladinoization” a process brought about by overt racism and persecution. The Ladinos use European attire and speak Spanish and determining the percentage of the population which is still Mayan is complicated because under certain circumstances they become Ladinos. “In Guatemala, as in other Latin American countries, “race” is more a matter of culture than genetics: one is an Indian because one defines oneself as such by wearing the clothes, speaking the language, and keeping to the values and traditions that symbolize Indian ethnicity.”
The role of epidemics in bringing down much of the Indigenous community was breathtaking, “…between 1520 and 1600 their populations fell by about 90 percent. At least 40 or 50 million people must have died…” It was the greatest demographic collapse in human history: proportionally three times more severe than the Black Death, which severely disrupted late medieval Europe without an accompanying invasion. “Great was the stench of the dead,” recalled the Annals of the Cakchiquels.” The plague referred two was probably smallpox.
Another insight into the life of the Maya was that their greatest strength and greatest weakness was their disunity. “They could not be subdued like the Aztecs by the destruction of a single city, nor paralyzed like the Incas y the ransom of a god-king. But their internecine squabbles blinded them to the Spanish threat until it was too late.”
This diversity is reflected in the 23 different languages the Maya speak. The author illustrates this with a language chart of basic, traditional words in each language. The words of the Ixil and Quiche (which are in the same area) are very different from the Yucatec language of the Mayan in the Yucatan. This contrasts with the legacy of the Inca Empire of Quechua and the state bilingualism the Bolivians have. “So, the Maya has been condemned by history to the margins of the modern world. But, like the Welsh, the Maya do not give up their culture easily.”
The complex world of religion among the Mayas is adeptly illustrated through the image of the church off the shores of Lake Atitlan in Santiago which was built in 1568 and “…is full of ancient and bizarre wooden saints propped against the walls. They are not static or serene, but stooping, writhing, dancing, oozing a glutinous blend of sanity and pain.” These “saints” are cared for by a Maya organization called cofradías or “brotherhoods” which have been the framework of local government as well. To the Catholic hierarchy, this practice was a form of ancestor worship and the most important one was “Maximón.” According to the author, new Catholics said he was an” effigy of Judas Iscariot”. But experts say his name meant San Simón mixed up with max, a Maya word for tobacco. (The Maximo I visited in Santiago appeared with a big cigar between his wooden lips—just like the ancient Death Lords) and his followers bestow him with many meanings and roles.
Wright recognizes the complexity and danger he encountered on his trip with a comment he makes when departing, “At midnight I walk across the international bridge. A small boy changes the last of my quetzals for pesos. Mexico! Suddenly I realize I’ve been holding my breath for weeks.”
In the “Epilogue” he states, “The modern Maya are traveling many roads: the hard road of armed resistance, the silent road of refuge; the seductive road of accommodation…On my journey, I have not found what I feared: that the Maya face extinction—much more than the rest of us. If there is to be the twenty-first century, the Maya will be part of it…”
Through all the complexity the author encountered during his trek through Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, he identified with the conundrum expressed by Gabriel García Márquez who said that Latin American writer’s great problem is not to create fantasy from what is real, “but to make Latin America’s reality believable—a much more difficult task” which Ronald Wright did admirably. And I agree with Jan Morris of “The Independent London,” who says, Time Among the Maya shows Wright to be far more than a mere storyteller or descriptive writer. He is a historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures."
Product details
• Publisher : Grove Press; 1st Grove Press ed edition (September 30, 2000)
• Language : English
• Paperback : 464 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0802137288
• ISBN-13 : 978-0802137289
• Item Weight : 1.21 pounds
• Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
o #16 in Belize History
o #88 in Guatemala History
o #248 in Mayan History (Books)
• Customer Reviews:
4.1 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico
ISBN: 978-1-78060-158-8
Format: 440pp demi pb
Place: Belize, Guatemala, Mexico
The Author
Ronald Wright is the author of ten books of fiction, history, essays, and travel published in eighteen languages and more than forty countries. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won Britain’s David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen as a book of the year by the Sunday Times and the New York Times. Wright’s CBC Massey Lectures, A Short History of Progress, won the Libris Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year and inspired Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary film Surviving Progress. His other bestsellers include Time Among the Maya and Stolen Continents, chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His latest work is The Gold Eaters, a novel set during the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. Born in England to British and Canadian parents, Wright lives on Canada’s west coast.
The Reviewer
Mark Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world with various international agencies.
His book, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, was according to the Midwest Review, “… more than just another travel memoir. It is an engaged and engaging story of one man’s physical and spiritual journey of self-discovery.”
Several of his articles have been published in Ragazine and WorldView Magazines, Literary Yard, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Quail BELL, while another was recognized by the “Solas Literary Award for Best Travel Writing.” He’s a contributing writer for “Revue Magazine” and the “Literary Traveler.” He has a column in the Arizona Authors Association newsletter.
His honors include the "Service Above Self" award from Rotary International. He’s a board member of “Advance Guatemala.” His wife and three children were born in Guatemala. You can learn more at www.MillionMileWalker.com and follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/millionmilew...
Although I was managing programs in Sierra Leone, West Africa when the author wrote his book, I’ve traveled to many of the places he describes, including the unforgettable hotel Santa Tomas where the author and team stayed,” …There’s hot water, colonial-style furniture, even a corner fireplace and a stack of logs. The room is arranged around patios full of flowers, stone fountains, and parrots on perches…”
But he adds an important fiat which he also pursues throughout the book, “…I should be a delightful place, but now it feels tainted. According to human rights organizations, there were fifty-four massacres in El Quiche during 1982 alone; more than three thousand civilians were killed.” As is the case throughout the book, he provides the source for this disturbing reality—in this case, a report published by the “Guatemalan Church in Exile.” The author traveled through some of the hardest-hit areas such as Nebaj, and Uspantán in the Department of Quiche, areas I’d worked in and around for many years.
He begins each chapter with Maya glyphs/script and an explanation of their meaning. He also provides maps, a Glossary, Bibliography, and Further Readings—a very comprehensive presentation.
Although I’ve studied the Maya and Guatemala extensively over the years and have a degree in Latin American studies, written extensively in my book/essays, I’ve rarely found such a mix of the literary and the historic materials in this book. Here’s his description of the area surrounding the Santo Tomas hotel in Chichicastenango:
Our room looks out on the canyons and the magnificent pine-bristled hills that climb out of them and stride toward the horizon. The cloud has lifted from the western mountains, allowing the sun to throw a weak coppery light on dark trees. Bright green clearings glow on the hillside wherever a farmer has a patch of young corn…
And of a Maya shaman-priest, worshiping at a family shrine, “I notice other plumes of smoke, blue against the dirty clouds, rising from small fields higher up in the mountains. Apart from the worshipers, everything is still; one has the feeling of being in an enchanted place, a land of ancient numina.”.
The author takes the reader to Tikal, “Here on their tallest building, in their greatest metropolis, I’m at the center of the Maya world” and describes the panoramic setting as follows:
From the top, the forest stretches to the horizon on all sides, diaphanous waves of mist washing across it like an ocean swell. The dark canopy, showing through in lacy troughs, hints at bottomless green depths, and from these rises the steep islands of the five great pyramids…
The author transported me to the ruins of Iximché which I’ve visited many times outside of Tejutla on the Pan American highway, “Iximché is a tranquil park, about a mile long and up to a quarter-mile wide. Remains of temples, palace platforms, and two ballcourts stand whitely among well-mowed lawns. Stands of ocote and Caribbean pine cover what were once suburbs and the steep cliffs protecting the Cakchiquel stronghold. A raven’s croak echoes in the woods…”
The tone of the journey through the Guatemalan takes on a different tone as the author learns of the devastating period of violence in Guatemala which he witnesses firsthand as he traveled through in the early 1980s. The “Afterwards” of 2020 version published by Eland Press refers to the United Nations Truth Commission in 1999 which summed up the impact as, “…93% of civilian killings between 1961 and 1996—more than 200,000 all told—were the work of Guatemala state forces, often with the United States and other foreign support. More than four-fifths of the victims were Maya…”
Wright provides the backdrop of the circumstances which lead to this level of killing by the Kaibiles, or “Tigers” crack counterinsurgency troops modeled on the Green Berets, with this responsorial chant at a training camp:
What does a Kaibil eat?
FLESH”
What kind of flesh?
HUMAN!
What kind of flesh?
COMMUNIST…
The author quotes a report that a survivor of the July 1982 massacre at the village of San Francisco said he saw a soldier cut out the heart of a warm corpse and put it into his mouth. The real tragedy is the term Kaibiles (a Mayan, Mam leader) has been appropriated to describe a group composed basically of non-Mayan “Ladinos”. “The atrocities allegedly committed by them and other army units, are like the early accounts of Nazi horrors, strain the belief of anyone living far from the social climate in which they took place. But reports are many and detailed…”
The violence impacted all levels of Guatemalan society as well. One of the author’s stories brought back memories of my visits to the coffee plantation on the southern slopes of the Atitlan Volcano, San Francisco Miramar owned by my wife’s grandfather. The area was partially occupied by the guerrilla group ORPA, so they’d come in during the day to talk with the workers followed in the afternoon by members of the Guatemalan army. In this case, an honorary consul of Norway lost his life when his small plane landed at the neighboring Finca Panamá for a visit and was attacked by members of ORPA who thought the flight was part of a military operation. It was a wild time, and the Norwegian consul was in the wrong place and the wrong time which could happen to anyone.
I always appreciate the insights a British-born traveler like Wright brings when describing the role of the U.S. in violence. United Fruit and the U.S. government justified much of the killing due to a “communist threat,” which the author sums up as, “…The political current flows south not north. The idea that Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Guatemala might spread some ideological contagion northward through Mexico to the gringo empire is the most ludicrous paranoia, Unfortunately for Central America, the United States suffers from what Carlos Fuentes has called “unabashed historical amnesia.”
What impressed me the most about this book was the author’s ability to pinpoint some of the key issues which impacted the countries he visited in the 1980s and continue to influence the situation in Central America today. He points out that Guatemala, like most countries in Latin America, has a paper country and a real one. Guatemala has the paper Guatemala—constitution, as a system of justice and regular free elections while the “real” Guatemala is,” …selfish interests seize power and hold it by corruption and terror.” The two countries pull in opposite directions—the one belongs to the military regime the other to insurgents; one is urban, the other rural; one depends on infrastructure—roads, airstrips, open fields- the other thrive in the wilderness. This is not a new pattern: it has been the fundamental structure of the Guatemalan conquest-state since 1524.”
The author calls “Ladinoization” a process brought about by overt racism and persecution. The Ladinos use European attire and speak Spanish and determining the percentage of the population which is still Mayan is complicated because under certain circumstances they become Ladinos. “In Guatemala, as in other Latin American countries, “race” is more a matter of culture than genetics: one is an Indian because one defines oneself as such by wearing the clothes, speaking the language, and keeping to the values and traditions that symbolize Indian ethnicity.”
The role of epidemics in bringing down much of the Indigenous community was breathtaking, “…between 1520 and 1600 their populations fell by about 90 percent. At least 40 or 50 million people must have died…” It was the greatest demographic collapse in human history: proportionally three times more severe than the Black Death, which severely disrupted late medieval Europe without an accompanying invasion. “Great was the stench of the dead,” recalled the Annals of the Cakchiquels.” The plague referred two was probably smallpox.
Another insight into the life of the Maya was that their greatest strength and greatest weakness was their disunity. “They could not be subdued like the Aztecs by the destruction of a single city, nor paralyzed like the Incas y the ransom of a god-king. But their internecine squabbles blinded them to the Spanish threat until it was too late.”
This diversity is reflected in the 23 different languages the Maya speak. The author illustrates this with a language chart of basic, traditional words in each language. The words of the Ixil and Quiche (which are in the same area) are very different from the Yucatec language of the Mayan in the Yucatan. This contrasts with the legacy of the Inca Empire of Quechua and the state bilingualism the Bolivians have. “So, the Maya has been condemned by history to the margins of the modern world. But, like the Welsh, the Maya do not give up their culture easily.”
The complex world of religion among the Mayas is adeptly illustrated through the image of the church off the shores of Lake Atitlan in Santiago which was built in 1568 and “…is full of ancient and bizarre wooden saints propped against the walls. They are not static or serene, but stooping, writhing, dancing, oozing a glutinous blend of sanity and pain.” These “saints” are cared for by a Maya organization called cofradías or “brotherhoods” which have been the framework of local government as well. To the Catholic hierarchy, this practice was a form of ancestor worship and the most important one was “Maximón.” According to the author, new Catholics said he was an” effigy of Judas Iscariot”. But experts say his name meant San Simón mixed up with max, a Maya word for tobacco. (The Maximo I visited in Santiago appeared with a big cigar between his wooden lips—just like the ancient Death Lords) and his followers bestow him with many meanings and roles.
Wright recognizes the complexity and danger he encountered on his trip with a comment he makes when departing, “At midnight I walk across the international bridge. A small boy changes the last of my quetzals for pesos. Mexico! Suddenly I realize I’ve been holding my breath for weeks.”
In the “Epilogue” he states, “The modern Maya are traveling many roads: the hard road of armed resistance, the silent road of refuge; the seductive road of accommodation…On my journey, I have not found what I feared: that the Maya face extinction—much more than the rest of us. If there is to be the twenty-first century, the Maya will be part of it…”
Through all the complexity the author encountered during his trek through Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, he identified with the conundrum expressed by Gabriel García Márquez who said that Latin American writer’s great problem is not to create fantasy from what is real, “but to make Latin America’s reality believable—a much more difficult task” which Ronald Wright did admirably. And I agree with Jan Morris of “The Independent London,” who says, Time Among the Maya shows Wright to be far more than a mere storyteller or descriptive writer. He is a historical philosopher with a profound understanding of other cultures."
Product details
• Publisher : Grove Press; 1st Grove Press ed edition (September 30, 2000)
• Language : English
• Paperback : 464 pages
• ISBN-10 : 0802137288
• ISBN-13 : 978-0802137289
• Item Weight : 1.21 pounds
• Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
• Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
o #16 in Belize History
o #88 in Guatemala History
o #248 in Mayan History (Books)
• Customer Reviews:
4.1 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
Time Among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico
ISBN: 978-1-78060-158-8
Format: 440pp demi pb
Place: Belize, Guatemala, Mexico
The Author
Ronald Wright is the author of ten books of fiction, history, essays, and travel published in eighteen languages and more than forty countries. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won Britain’s David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen as a book of the year by the Sunday Times and the New York Times. Wright’s CBC Massey Lectures, A Short History of Progress, won the Libris Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year and inspired Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary film Surviving Progress. His other bestsellers include Time Among the Maya and Stolen Continents, chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His latest work is The Gold Eaters, a novel set during the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. Born in England to British and Canadian parents, Wright lives on Canada’s west coast.
The Reviewer
Mark Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world with various international agencies.
His book, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, was according to the Midwest Review, “… more than just another travel memoir. It is an engaged and engaging story of one man’s physical and spiritual journey of self-discovery.”
Several of his articles have been published in Ragazine and WorldView Magazines, Literary Yard, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Quail BELL, while another was recognized by the “Solas Literary Award for Best Travel Writing.” He’s a contributing writer for “Revue Magazine” and the “Literary Traveler.” He has a column in the Arizona Authors Association newsletter.
His honors include the "Service Above Self" award from Rotary International. He’s a board member of “Advance Guatemala.” His wife and three children were born in Guatemala. You can learn more at www.MillionMileWalker.com and follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/millionmilew...
May 15, 2021
“If Greek civilization explored the universe with geometry, the Maya did so with arithmetic and time.”
.
This insight comes early in Ronald Wright’s Time Among the Maya, and sets the stage for his journey through Belize , Guatemala, Chiapas and the Yucatán.
Like the Mayan calendar, the narrative ranges through vast spans of time, from prehistoric beginnings to the heyday of powerful city-states, to the late 1800s Caste War that left isolated villages of survivors in Quintana Roo who maintained their stubborn independence into the 1980s.
Far from being an extinct people swallowed by the jungle like their famous temples, the Maya form a significant percentage of the population of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, with ancient languages that are still spoken today.
As he visits ruins in the region, the author builds the most accessible explanation I’ve ever read of the complex calendar system and how it shaped their worldview.
Like the best travel writing, it blends contemporary culture and ancient history, anthropology and literature, and encounters with those he meets along the way.
Wright’s journey took place in 1980s, but his observations feel surprisingly contemporary. Many of the same issues still afflict Mesoamerica — extreme poverty, environmental degradation, plagues of missionaries, civil strife — and cycles of violence continue to recur like the cycles of the Maya calendar.
The book also contains a stark warning. When a culture dies, an immense body of human knowledge, gathered by generations of minds, vanishes into oblivion.
We’re left with Silicon Civilization. Modernity run amok, cascading downhill with self-serving momentum as we live out increasingly harried lives in a sound bite, cell phone, attention-deficit sprint from cradle to grave.
The Maya knew even the most powerful civilizations rise and fall. And they knew how to fade into the background and wait for the next tzolkin.
We may erase ourselves from the Earth, but we cannot erase time.
.
This insight comes early in Ronald Wright’s Time Among the Maya, and sets the stage for his journey through Belize , Guatemala, Chiapas and the Yucatán.
Like the Mayan calendar, the narrative ranges through vast spans of time, from prehistoric beginnings to the heyday of powerful city-states, to the late 1800s Caste War that left isolated villages of survivors in Quintana Roo who maintained their stubborn independence into the 1980s.
Far from being an extinct people swallowed by the jungle like their famous temples, the Maya form a significant percentage of the population of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, with ancient languages that are still spoken today.
As he visits ruins in the region, the author builds the most accessible explanation I’ve ever read of the complex calendar system and how it shaped their worldview.
Like the best travel writing, it blends contemporary culture and ancient history, anthropology and literature, and encounters with those he meets along the way.
Wright’s journey took place in 1980s, but his observations feel surprisingly contemporary. Many of the same issues still afflict Mesoamerica — extreme poverty, environmental degradation, plagues of missionaries, civil strife — and cycles of violence continue to recur like the cycles of the Maya calendar.
The book also contains a stark warning. When a culture dies, an immense body of human knowledge, gathered by generations of minds, vanishes into oblivion.
We’re left with Silicon Civilization. Modernity run amok, cascading downhill with self-serving momentum as we live out increasingly harried lives in a sound bite, cell phone, attention-deficit sprint from cradle to grave.
The Maya knew even the most powerful civilizations rise and fall. And they knew how to fade into the background and wait for the next tzolkin.
We may erase ourselves from the Earth, but we cannot erase time.
April 2, 2014
I liked this book enough, but it wasn't what I expected or necessarily had wanted to read when I bought it. To me, "Time Among the Maya" implies that the book is about living or traveling among Maya peoples and the experiences that come along. While this book did chronicle time spent traveling among Maya throughout the mentioned countries, it is mainly done so to research and recount the history (which I probably would have realized had I researched the book better). Sometimes I felt myself not paying attention to what I was reading, especially when he detailed the calendar and other topics like that. Nonetheless, the book is very informative and well-researched and good to read for a history of Maya civilization/conflict from around 1800 and on. Perhaps this book would be more interesting to me had I visited some of the sites.
March 29, 2016
This book starts as a conventional travelogue, but when the author leaves Belize for Guatemala, the author really gets into his stride with clear-sighted observations, a well-researched history of the Maya Indians and their fate, and well-informed judgments about the political and social conditions in this country ravaged by civil war. The British-Canadian author was trained as an archeologist and uses his extensive knowledge and questions regarding the ancient Mayan calendar as the binding thread of the book. Half of the book is devoted to Guatemala, especially the towns of the highlands with their exotic sounding names such as Huehuetenango, while the last hundred pages deal with the Mayas of Mexico. Originally published in 1989 further political upheavals have taken place, but this very readable book provides a background that still is informative and useful.
April 26, 2011
The title is a play on words. The author intersperses an account of a circuit he made of Mayan sites in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico with explanations of the Mayan calendar, the Mayan world view and religion, and Mayan history. I enjoyed the historical parts more than the contemporary travelogue. Latin America has a very sad history. The history of the Maya in Guatemala is particularly tragic, and the U.S. was complicit in the genocide that took place there.
February 27, 2013
Fascinating account of author's travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. Since I currently live in Belize and have visited both Guatemala and Mexico, it opened my eyes to the oppression of the Maya as well as Guatemala's bloody history. Rich in detail, well-written, and blends the author's travelogue with history.
December 12, 2015
Wright may be a failed archeologist, but I would bet that many professional archeologists study his work for its wonderful detail and insight.
For anyone interested in indigenous history across the Americas, Wright's works are mandatory reading.
It would open everyone's eyes to read them. Detailed, but engrossing.
For anyone interested in indigenous history across the Americas, Wright's works are mandatory reading.
It would open everyone's eyes to read them. Detailed, but engrossing.
August 4, 2009
Truly inspired writing and a clear inquisitive mind at work make this an important book...important for understanding who we are and who 'the other' is. This book was the first sign that Ronald Wright was an intellect and a writer to reckon with.
May 22, 2023
This was a fascinating book and so very thorough. I enjoyed that it is written as a travel diary, so it gives more of an idea of the regional geography and of distances between places. I loved that aspect of the account and it made me want to read it while travelling the route. I also like the way in which Wright merges modern and ancient history, and how as he travels the region, certain patterns start to appear.
One negative point is that I got very lost on dates throughout. This may have been because I read it over such a long period of time, but it made it hard to follow. A lot of the time I felt like I should have been making notes -especially on names of different Maya and Christian faiths and groups.
Aside from some outdated language that sometimes struck a wrong note, I found some parts really difficult to read. It is good that someone is telling those stories, but they require a strong stomach, and it's probably the reason it took me 3 years to finish it. My personal enjoyment overall was probably more a 3-star for this reason, but objectively, the book deserves that 4th star.
One negative point is that I got very lost on dates throughout. This may have been because I read it over such a long period of time, but it made it hard to follow. A lot of the time I felt like I should have been making notes -especially on names of different Maya and Christian faiths and groups.
Aside from some outdated language that sometimes struck a wrong note, I found some parts really difficult to read. It is good that someone is telling those stories, but they require a strong stomach, and it's probably the reason it took me 3 years to finish it. My personal enjoyment overall was probably more a 3-star for this reason, but objectively, the book deserves that 4th star.
July 21, 2021
This book is fascinating. The author traveled the modern Mayan world (Belize, Guatemala, Mexico) in the late 1980s and juxtaposes his travel diary with Mayan history. Obviously, some of the historical knowledge and even the terminology used is a bit dated, but it's absolutely fascinating to read about what this area of the world was like 30 years ago since I've been there a few times in recent years. Guatemala, especially, has a heartbreaking recent history. The author's way with words sticks with me - sentences like this one had me savoring this book and reading it as slowly as possible because I didn't want to finish. "The thunder was felt as much as heard, a deafening blast in the heavens followed by a detonation deep within the pyramid, as if the old king and his retinue were trying to blast their way out of the underworld."
January 20, 2019
A very fine writer, Wright excels at condensing Mayan history into digestible bits. And his descriptive scenery is wonderful -- again, often a couple of quick brushstrokes that paint a vivid picture. Given the significance of time and time-keeping to the culture, it's understandable that the book devotes as much space as it does to that topic, even though I found it of no interest. Many lively characters are captured, often with humour, but sometimes with derision (Wright appears to harbour a strong, and perhaps smug, aversion to "tourists"). The observations and recitation of tragedies inflicted upon the highland Mayans in Guatemala are particular gut-wrenching. Overall, an estimable volume on an ancient culture that may be shattered, but still survives.
June 21, 2018
Anthropologist Ronald Wright discusses his voyages through Mayan areas in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Mostly the book is a discussion of Mayan history and culture, interspersed with Wright's personal experiences. This is the one drawback of the book; Wright risks presenting himself as the expert young traveler with a big interest in beer and women, which risks coming across as pretentious.
December 31, 2023
WHAT IS A MAN ON THE ROAD? TIME.
This wonderful Mayan saying encapsulates the Mesoamerican Mayan traditions as illustrated in this embracing story of Wright's journey throughout Mayalania: from Belize through Guatemala and up to the mountains of Chiapas, then through Palenque and Campeche, and finally, Yucatán.
This wonderful Mayan saying encapsulates the Mesoamerican Mayan traditions as illustrated in this embracing story of Wright's journey throughout Mayalania: from Belize through Guatemala and up to the mountains of Chiapas, then through Palenque and Campeche, and finally, Yucatán.
March 16, 2023
A fascinating look into Mayan history - part history book, part travel book! Great for anyone visiting South America for the first time, or for those wanting a deeper insight into an amazing civilization.
December 23, 2025
It is so awful the impact of colonization on the planet, its environments and the people. Ronald Wright is excellent at presenting history and the awful policies of the European and Americans. I recommend any and all of his books.
September 22, 2024
A pretty good travelogue and history of Mayan Mesoamerica in the 1980s.
November 7, 2020
From a young age I've been fascinated with ancient cultures around the world, whether it be the Druids, Egyptians, ancient Greeks or indeed the Maya there's always a sense of reverence when we think of these cultures and their impact on not just their countries of origin, but through to the modern-day in which we live. In all of these cultures, I think it's the Maya that have fascinated me the most, a culture of not just great advancements in art, astronomy, mathematics and mythology, but its fascination with time and their belief their calendrical system could predict future events, their religious pantheon but also a culture that until recently we knew very little about after their collapse over a thousand years ago.
However, this is not the Maya of today and In Time Among the Maya, Ronald Wright takes us through the modern world of the Maya and a culture that, in many ways, has never recovered from its collapse and conquest by the Spanish in the fifteenth and sixteenth Centuries and civil wars the essence of the Maya still survives in many regions of South America. Travelling by foot, plane, train boat and rickety bus Wright explores not just the Mayas rich tapestry of architecture, religion and language but also their current plight as persevering communities whose spirit refuses to be broken.
Time Among the Maya, however, is not a homage to a culture long gone, but on many ways a celebration that in the face of all adversities they’ve managed to survive. Throughout the Spanish invasions which destroyed many South American civilisations, imposed Christianity replacing their pantheon of gods, political upheavals the Maya have thrived. Much of my own understanding of the situation really pales when realising that a number of countries, such as Guatemala are very much third world countries with very high poverty levels, and Wright certainly doesn’t hide this from the reader. In many ways, Time Among the Maya is a very much ‘warts and all’ travelogue of his travels throughout the regions and although originally published in 1989 little has changed for the people who still live under the shadow of civil war.
However, Wright’s observations aren’t sympathetic to a Maya who are long forgotten but a Maya whose spirit still thrives. Delivered with Wright’s wit and expertise in the culture Time Among the Maya presents the reader with not just a fascinating history of the Maya but also a narrative of the, often, brutal regimes the people have had to endure over the centuries.
Although the title provides a delicious play on words, Time Among the Maya is a very comprehensive account of Wright’s travels and observations which will provide a unique travelogue of one person's interpretations of the history of South America and essential reading for those intending to make their own voyages.
However, this is not the Maya of today and In Time Among the Maya, Ronald Wright takes us through the modern world of the Maya and a culture that, in many ways, has never recovered from its collapse and conquest by the Spanish in the fifteenth and sixteenth Centuries and civil wars the essence of the Maya still survives in many regions of South America. Travelling by foot, plane, train boat and rickety bus Wright explores not just the Mayas rich tapestry of architecture, religion and language but also their current plight as persevering communities whose spirit refuses to be broken.
Time Among the Maya, however, is not a homage to a culture long gone, but on many ways a celebration that in the face of all adversities they’ve managed to survive. Throughout the Spanish invasions which destroyed many South American civilisations, imposed Christianity replacing their pantheon of gods, political upheavals the Maya have thrived. Much of my own understanding of the situation really pales when realising that a number of countries, such as Guatemala are very much third world countries with very high poverty levels, and Wright certainly doesn’t hide this from the reader. In many ways, Time Among the Maya is a very much ‘warts and all’ travelogue of his travels throughout the regions and although originally published in 1989 little has changed for the people who still live under the shadow of civil war.
However, Wright’s observations aren’t sympathetic to a Maya who are long forgotten but a Maya whose spirit still thrives. Delivered with Wright’s wit and expertise in the culture Time Among the Maya presents the reader with not just a fascinating history of the Maya but also a narrative of the, often, brutal regimes the people have had to endure over the centuries.
Although the title provides a delicious play on words, Time Among the Maya is a very comprehensive account of Wright’s travels and observations which will provide a unique travelogue of one person's interpretations of the history of South America and essential reading for those intending to make their own voyages.
December 1, 2015
I think a lot could've been cut out or made more concise. The book alternates between travel diary and Mayan/Central American history rapidly, and jumps around to many different time periods. It's hard to keep it all straight, and the extra details make the writing feel direction-less at times. Learned a lot, though. It's a shame there weren't any pictures - the jungle, Mayan ruins, and living temples sound beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews