Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalA Rare Public Display of a 17th-Century Mayan Manuscript
With the book newly digitized, scholars are reinterpreting a story of native resistance from within its pages
By Allison Keyes
smithsonian.com
May 12, 2017
When you take a close look at the flowery but meticulous lettering in the 17th-century book, you can see that many people wrote the script, at different times. The book includes everything from sermons to poems, and there’s a dedication to Pope Urban IV.
The Libro de Sermones Varios en Lengua Quiche, from 1690, is the oldest manuscript in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives. It provides not only a fascinating look at the evolution of the Maya K’iche’ language, but it also tells a stark tale of religious history.
“When I see a document like this it just blows me away to see the care with which the language was put on paper by so many different people,” says Gabriela Pérez-Báez, curator of linguistics in the anthropology department at the National Museum of Natural History. She says the book is written in four different languages, including K’iche’, Latin, Spanish and Kaqchikel. “The paper is thicker, the book smells differently, it is really amazing to see the care with which it was written,” Pérez-Báez marvels.
The Libro de Sermones is part of the Objects of Wonder exhibition now on view at the National Museum of Natural History. The book has also been digitized so that scholars can peruse the book both to answer questions about history, but also to document the changes in the K’iche’ language as the Spanish were taking over the Maya empire in the 16th century. The text in the Libro de Sermones is very similar to the K’iche’ language that was spoken before contact with the Spanish. The book was given to one Felipe Silva by Pablo Agurdia of Guatemala in 1907, and Silva apparently donated it to the Smithsonian Institution sometime after that, but there are no documents explaining exactly how that happened. Today, Pérez-Báez says the book is quite relevant and important to scholars.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/17th-century-mayan-manuscript-displayed-rare-public-display-180963272/#1ZjG4E2cHpZgqQG6.99
The oddest couple An Irishwomans Diary on Diego Rivera and Albert Bender
about 5 hours ago
Elgy Gillespie
Frida Kahlo And Diego Rivera
Seventy-seven years ago, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera climbed a ladder on San Francisco’s Treasure Island. With a paintbrush in one hand and a pistol in each pocket, he was hoping for a thousand dollars a month to paint his epic Pan American Unity for the World’s Fair. At the same time he was fleeing Mexico’s federales on suspicion of murdering his former friend Leon Trotsky. A hundred thousand onlookers gawked. Polite and unassuming, he climbed down to chat, endearing himself and blowing his deadline by three months.
Subtitled The Marriage Between North and South America, all 1800sq ft of his mural expressed his beliefs. Fascinating and vast, it teems with history from Montezuma to Ford, and features Diego’s wife Frida Kahlo and Chaplin acting as Hitler.
“My mural will picture the fusion between the Latin American lands deeply rooted in the soil, and high mechanical developments of the United States.”
Alas, it hangs where few see it, at the community college where I teach. Good news: City College is planning a $200 million state-of-the-art theatre, and after decades of neglect the mural will take pride of place.
More:
http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-oddest-couple-an-irishwoman-s-diary-on-diego-rivera-and-albert-bender-1.3081346
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Pan American Unity
Diego Rivera, as a young man.
Colombias Christian Alt-Right
05.13.2017
COLOMBIA
ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ
In Colombia, Internet personalities and religious leaders mobilize opposition to the peace process by drumming-up fears of sexual diversity and “gender ideology.”
. . .
In Colombia, ideological vestiges of the Cold War have been refashioned to direct fear and anger towards a fictional “gender ideology” that supposedly poses a spiritual threat to Christian values. In the lead-up to the peace referendum, right-wing groups were able mobilize the imaginary threat of a queer, communist conspiracy to generate panic and turn it into political capital.
It’s time we grappled with the gruesome consequences of a political conjuncture in which online media figures, conservative religious movements, and a generalized politics of fear all intersect to shore up support for the Right, even in a country poised to overcome a persistent conflict that has raged for more than fifty years.
. . .
The anti-peace right targeted high- and middle-income Colombians by telling them that they would be responsible for the economic burden of the agreement — “the cost of peace.” Meanwhile, among low-income voters, the Right stirred fears about possible reductions to social welfare as the national budget changed to prioritize the reintegration of ex-combatants. But inflecting everything was an angry hysteria about sexual diversity — a specter of creeping cultural deviance which the Colombian right successfully associated with the proposed peace agreement.
In Vélez’s words, “We were looking for people to go out to vote while pissed off.” In this, Vélez and his collaborators were clearly successful. But to understand why this tactic was so effective, it’s necessary to go back months before the referendum.
More:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/colombia-christian-right-homophobia-peace-referendum-bigotry
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Juan Carlos Vélez Uribe, left, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, right, former right-wing president.
'Indigenous people are stabilizing the global climate'
Candido Mezua is an indigenous leader from Panama who was present at the recent violent protests in Brazil. At the climate conference in Bonn, he tells DW why it's crucial for indigenous peoples to defend forests.
12.05.2017
The Paris Agreement included indigenous peoples as a key element to improve climate protection. Recent studies have shown that titling land rights to indigenous communities decreases deforestation and forest degradation.
However, indigenous leaders say their land rights are still being violated - which prevents them from properly protecting the forests in which they live. Violent protests in Brasilia in late April have brought back the discussion back to the spotlight, as did a brutal attack on an indigenous tribe in Brazil at the beginning of May, in which a man had his hands cut off.
Candido Mezua, an indigenous leader from Panama, is taking part in the preparatory meeting for COP23 in Bonn, Germany, where DW spoke with him.
More:
http://www.dw.com/en/indigenous-people-are-stabilizing-the-global-climate/a-38809613
Peru's Indigenous Women Bring Forced Sterilizations Case to UN
Published 10 May 2017
Sterilizations have a dark and controversial history in the country, and efforts to bring justice and representation to thousands of victims who live in disenfranchised and resource-scare communities has been a slow road.
Peru’s National Organization of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women, ONAMIAP, brought the case of mass sterilizations which occurred during the second term of former dictator Alberto Fujimori to the United Nations earlier this week.
Between 1995 to 2000, the right-wing leader oversaw forced sterilizations that affected over 270,000 women and 24,000 men, according to ONAMIAP.
ONAMIAP launched the initiative on the last day of the 16th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that took place in New York between April 24 to May 5.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Perus-Indigenous-Women-Bring-Forced-Sterilizations-Case-to-UN-20170510-0022.html
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Forced sterilisation haunts Peruvian women decades on
By Javier Lizarzaburu
Lima
2 December 2015
Twenty years ago she was growing potatoes and corn and bringing up her children in her native Huayllacocha, a village in the Andes four hours by car from the provincial capital, Cuzco.
But she told me her life changed forever one day in 1996.
A doctor suggested Ms Huillca, who was heavily pregnant at the time, visit a health clinic in the town of Izcuchaca.
'Nightmare'
She told the BBC that the nightmare started straight after she gave birth.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34855804
As Mexico combats fears about rising crime, a soldier is caught on tape carrying out an execution
Source: Los Angeles Times
Kate Linthicum
MAY 10, 2017 4:05 PM REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY
The soldiers were caught on video carrying out what appears to be an extrajudicial killing.
In security camera images in Puebla state, a group of Mexican military officers fire on a car carrying suspected gasoline thieves. The soldiers then drag a man from the car who appears badly injured and lay him face-down in the street. A few moments later, a soldier fires a single bullet into the back of the man’s head.
It’s unclear what happened to two other men seen dragged from the car and off-camera.
The video, recorded May 3 and made public Wednesday by the news agency Diario Cambio, sparked outrage in Mexico, where lawmakers are debating several versions of a law that would legalize and expand the military’s enforcement of domestic security across the country.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-execution-20170510-story.html
Colombias former president and two ministers guilty of land grabbing: Comptroller General
Source: Colombia Reports
written by Jamie Vaughan Johnson May 10, 2017
Colombia’s Comptroller General on Tuesday accused former president Alvaro Uribe and the current and former agriculture ministers of illegally taking land meant for less fortunate farmers.
The Comptroller General’s report, which compiled evidence from between 2013 and 2015, highlighted 33 cases of alleged irregular accumulation of uncultivated land covering an area just over 123,482 hectares.
. . .
Large landowners like Uribe, major companies and multinationals subsequently were able to cheaply buy the land abandoned by the displaced, often with the help of paramilitary death squads and corrupt land officials who unduly legalized deeds of abandoned land.
Uribe’s family has been accused of having ties to paramilitary death squads for decades. His cousin has already been to prison while the former president’s brother is in jail awaiting trial for allegedly forming his own paramilitary group.
Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombias-former-president-two-ministers-accused-land-grabbing/
Brazil Announces US-backed Military Drills At South America Triple Border Zone
BRASILIA, May 8 (NNN-EFE)--Brazil's military announced in a video further details on the first instalment of military drills in the border between Brazil, Colombia and Peru with the support and training from the United States, BBC reported.
. . .
Philosopher Hector Luis Saint Pierre, the coordinator of international security, defence and strategy of the Brazilian Association of International Relations, told BBC there was an interest in the U.S. to focus on the political situation in Venezuela.
US President Donald Trump has talked to the presidents of both Peru and Colombia, as well as Argentina, about his interest in the country.
"Brazil is a strategic partner for the doctrine of the military," said Saint Pierre. "If the United States has a good relationship with the Brazilian navy, it is easier to spread its message among the military in the region."
More:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/wn/newsworld.php?id=1354132
Curiosity Rover Eyes Gorgeous Black Sand Dunes on Mars (Photos)
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | May 5, 2017 03:45pm ET
- click for image -
https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2NS82MTQvb3JpZ2luYWwvc2NhbGVzLW9mLXJpcHBsZXMtbWFycy5qcGc=
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has snapped some additional stunning vistas of the black sand dunes that have captured its attention for parts of the past 18 months.
The newly released photos show a section of the Bagnold Dunes, a big black-sand field that lies on the northwestern flank of Mars' 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) Mount Sharp.
From early February through early April of this year, Curiosity studied four different sites near a linear dune within Bagnold. The car-size rover is now driving uphill and away from this area, carrying a sand sample with it as it goes, NASA officials said. [Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover (Latest Images)]
Curiosity arrived at a different part of Bagnold in late 2015. The six-wheeled robot soon began examining some crescent-shaped dunes, kicking off the first-ever close-up investigation of active sand dunes on a world other than Earth.
More:
http://www.space.com/36738-mars-rover-curiosity-sand-dunes-photos.html?utm_source=notification
Lakes of lava at the Gates of Hell in Nicaragua video
JILL WORRALL
Last updated 05:00, May 8 2017
The Spanish conquerors of Central America called it La Boca del Infierno (the Gates of Hell) and, after standing briefly above its gaseous portal, I can see why.
What is less expected is to be standing on the lip of an incandescent lava chamber an easy bus ride only 10km from a capital city.
The Masaya volcano, close to Nicaragua's capital city of Managua, is one of only about six such continuously active lava lakes in the world and, compared to the likes of those in Antarctica and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one of the more accessible.
Driving through the tumble of jagged, blackened lava field from Masaya's last major lava flows in 1772, brought out the latent geomorphology geek in me. My head buzzed with words like calderas, shield volcanoes, pyroclastic flows and ignimbrites.
More:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/themes/adventure/92206211/.html
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