When the volcano became dormant, after blowing itself apart, it left a crater. In the crater formed a lake. Fish-eating baboons populated the jungle around the lake. A city grew upon the shore; its people drawn by the plentiful fishing.
Cattle ranches and farmland ate into the jungle, but not too much. The lush foliage still spreads, wide and dense, upon the remaining volcanic peaks. Mel Gibson chose it as a filming location for some of the scenes in 'Apocalypto'; Sean Connery used it as a backdrop for 'Medicine Man'. The Mexican government protect it, as part of the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve. UNESCO declared it a world heritage site. Out on the lake, there are islands where the macaque monkeys roam free; survivors of research labs. This is Catemaco and the city belongs to the witches.
There are always brujos in Catemaco. The High Council of Witches and Wizards resides there. Pilgrims, primarily from Mexico but increasingly from around the world, come here for healing, workshops or magical protection. The city has charms, in every sense of the word. Then, during the first Thursday and Friday in March, the city fills with magical practitioners of every hue. This is the Congreso Internacional de Brujos (International Gathering of Witches) and, during this festival, the sleepy city truly comes alive.
The fiesta erupts in parades, music and dancing. Healers, psychics, therapists and Pagan vendors line the shore. Everywhere the fine food, for which Catemaco is nationally famous, is on offer in abundance. The streets are filled with priests and priestesses in their finery. Olmec head-dresses rise, in full plumage, above the throng. This is a celebration, as much as a get-together.
The Annual Gathering of Witches is a light-hearted affair. You don't have to be a witch to be there. In fact, ordinary tourists are the ones filling the hotels and guesthouses, drawn by the party atmosphere and the wonderful sights on offer. A tarot reading here, an amulet there and participation in a cleansing ceremony are usually as far as the average visitor tends to go. For the real Pagans though, this is an opportunity to meet up with like-minded people, sharing knowledge and joining together for rituals. On the whole, it's both fun and empowering.
Catemaco has always been steeped in the mystical. It was once the stronghold of the Olmec people. Local legend has it that Catemaco was once the sacred center for the Olmec, hence its Pagan credentials start there. The festivals and practises now are simply a continuation of ways that have been here for 3,000 years. Colossal Stone Heads have been found in nearby San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán.
The area is also home to several tribes of Hungaros/Rromaní (gypsies). These people will be in Catemaco for the gathering, plying their traditional wares and services.
For more information about the witches of Catemaco, plus photographs, film and stories, please visit Catemaco Brujos.
It is a creature that has become iconic in film, art, literature, legend and national identity. The mighty jaguar, whose fur bedecked ancient Aztec warriors and whose aspect fuelled images of their Gods. Once ranging throughout the North and South Americas, it's been pushed further and further south until it is no longer seen in Canada, while it's nearly gone from the USA. But its dwindling numbers, near threatened with extinction, still roam the dense jungle reserves of Mexico.
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the only panther native to the Americas or, indeed, to the western hemisphere. For many, the stereotypical jaguar is black. Such notions are fuelled by appearances like that in 'Apocalypto'. However, most jaguars look more like their cousins, the leopards.
Jaguar, as it's commonly seen
There are some distinct differences between jaguars and leopards though. The jaguar is heavier and stockier, weighing in at 124–211lbs (8s 9lbs-15s; 56–96kg). It is also longer, from head to the base of the tail, measuring 1.62–1.83 metres (5.3–6 ft). Finally, the markings on the body, known as rosettes, are thicker, blacker and less numerous than on the leopard.
This isn't to say that black jaguars don't turn up naturally from time to time. Melanism, a condition causing an excess of black pigmentation, can occur, but only roughly 6% of the jaguar population exhibit this. Even then, direct sunlight will illuminate the markings blending into the fur. Incidentally, there are no black panthers as a separate species of big cat. They are all melanistic jaguars, leopards, tigers or lions.
Melanistic jaguar, aka black panther
The opposite can also occur, with albino jaguars showing up as white panthers. These are less common in Mexico, as they are further south in Paraguay.
Jaguars are carnivores. Their diet consists of a large variety of animals, which they hunt with powerful efficiency. Like all big cats, they are adapt at biting deeply into the throats of their prey, effectively suffocating them. However, there is something special about jaguars, which makes them unique amongst felines. They have a second method of slaughter.
Jaguar bringing down a tapir
They bite down between their prey's ears, crushing the temporal bones at the base of the skull. In this way, the jaguar's canine teeth can penetrate the brain and instantly kill their victim. It's believed that this adaption was learned 11,000 years ago, when the late Pleistocene extinctions left them with little to eat but armoured reptiles, like turtles.
It may be reassuring to know, therefore, that human beings are not the jaguar's natural prey. (The situation is more often reversed, hence the fact that jaguars are heading towards extinction, due to deforestation and human hunters.) This isn't to say that jaguars won't attack humans, if they are provoked. They have no fear of us and, in an unarmed fight, the jaguar will win. However, they are elusive and will go out of their way to avoid humans. They will only attack if sick, injured or feel that their cubs are being threatened.
Jaguars don't come into the cities and resorts, so you are most likely to only see one if you visit somewhere like Xcaret. This video was filmed there.
Tours into the Yucatán jungle, one of the few remaining natural habitats of the jaguar, tend to be with experienced guides. Mauled tourists are bad for business, so you would be thoroughly protected, on the off-chance that you encountered one. However, should you find yourself in the unlikely situation of being stranded there alone, with a jaguar staring at you, then there are things that you can do.
First you can rejoice in the fact that you are experiencing an extremely rare encounter.
Secondly, do not run. That might be against all instinct, but running people look like prey. You'll be doing nothing but triggering the hunter in your new friend.
Thirdly, don't stare at it. Watch it, by all means, but do not look straight into its eyes. That's the feline equivalent of saying, 'would you like a fight?' You don't. It's bigger than you. Instead, face it, but look past it, or at the ground in front of it, or to the side of it. Not the eyes.
Fourthly, back away slowly. The jaguar is a hide and ambush kind of hunter, just like any cat. If it's in full view, watching you, then it's not actually hunting you. You're just the current entertainment, while it evaluates you to see if you're a threat to it. Backing away slowly is your way of saying, 'I'm no threat. I'm really lovely. Bye.'
By now, all should be well. The jaguar will have either stayed where it is or gone away, bored by the strange human. In the utterly bizarre circumstance that it decides to attack, then raise your arms in the air, wave them around and start shouting. This makes you look bigger and more dangerous than you actually are and might deter it. Above all, don't start running, even at this point, because it can speed along at 35 miles per hour and you probably can't.
Jaguar inspired art and tours can be found all over Mexico, though its actual habitat has mostly been pushed back to very narrow strips of reservations. Hopes that this magnificant cat can survive were given a boost, in 2009, when one was spotted in central Mexico, for the first time in a century.
The Maya Empire stretched over a huge area, encompassing modern day south Mexico and the northern part of Central America. It was in the southern region of the Maya world that a 1,000 year old royal tomb was uncovered in May. The find was announced this week with the discoveries inside adding great insight to our knowledge about the ancient Maya.
The burial chamber was inside a pyramid, which had lay hidden underneath thick jungle, near to the city of El Zotz. It appears to be largely intact, subject only to the ravages of Mother Nature, rather than the plundering of later people. The art and artifacts found inside are going to advance our understanding about the Maya, especially since they include some oddities.
Alongside carvings, ceramics and beads, there was the grisly find of six sacrificed infants. As already discussed in previous blogs, the Maya did not undertake the industrial scale human sacrifice, as shown in films like 'Apocalypto'. But the sacrifice of one or two individuals was not unknown, especially during the ascension of a new monarch. It would appear now that the sacrifices were also linked to the demise of the previous one. However, that is open to interpretation.
A team from Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, led the excavation. Andrew Scherer, one of its anthropologists, said, "Why the children would have been killed is a mystery. But the youth of the victims hints that their value as sacrifices may have lain in their being, to Maya eyes, on the verge of personhood."
(Please note that there are spoilers for the movie, 'Apocalypto', in this blog entry.)
Mel Gibson's epic movie, 'Apocalypto', is already four years old. However, for many visitors to Mexico, this movie is their only source of knowledge about the Maya people. Many tourists point at the steps of real-life structures like El Castillo, then start referencing a particularly graphic scene from 'Apocalypto'. It is clearly time to explore this award-winning blockbuster, with regard to the real-life Maya.
'Apocalypto' is a chase flick, in the action-adventure genre, played out against the lush jungle setting of the late Classic Maya civilization. It has a script entirely in the Yucatec Maya language, with subtitles for those not conversant in it. The movie watching public is drawn into a dark and dangerous world, as we follow the fortunes of a young man named Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood). We watch endemic sadism, as captors torture slaves; wars run bloody; wholesale human sacrifice is practiced; and even friends are left in the jungle to die alone.
Synopsis
Jaguar Paw lives in a Maya hunting community, deep within the Yucatán jungle; but the village is raided and its adult population is taken to a Maya city. Here the people are sick and starving; while the captives are enslaved or sacrificed in horrific, public ceremonies. However, Jaguar Paw had time, before being captured, to hide his pregnant wife, Seven (Dalia Hernández), and child, Turtles Run (Carlos Emilio Báez) in a well. They have no way of climbing out again, so Jaguar Paw needs to escape in order to rescue them.
This seems hopeless, as he is splayed upon the sacrificial altar, having just witnessed his friends in the same position. Their still-beating hearts were torn from their bodies. They were still conscious, as they were decapitated. (The audience gets the viewpoint from the eyes of a head tumbling down the steep steps, before death finally envelopes the brain.) But the advent of a total eclipse of the sun stills the sacrifices and Jaguar Paw is eventually able to escape via the barbarism of the ballcourt. The entire second part of the movie is the vaunted chase sequence.
Jaguar Paw runs for his life, while the warriors of the ruling Maya king hurtle after him, intent upon his death. He eventually emerges triumphant and saves his wife, child and new-born baby. At the very end, they glimpse the arrival of the Spanish, headed by a Catholic priest, in boats approaching the shore. Jaguar Paw dismisses them as insignificant, despite his wife's suggestion that they may represent their salvation. The whole family walk off into the jungle for a new beginning.
Apocalypto's Themes
The theme is made clear from the Will Durant quotation, in the opening credits, 'A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.' In short, the Maya world was already crumbling into the depths of degradation before the Spanish even conquered them. They were starving in the big cities; their magnificent buildings were in disrepair; their forests were being felled; and humanity was taking so many resources that the environment could no longer sustain them. The revelance to our modern, Western civilization couldn't be more obvious.
Commentators have also noted the underlying Catholic message. Jaguar Paw's wife, Seven, is heavily pregnant, but both she and the baby are endangered. Pro-lifers have seized upon this as an anti-abortion message. Others have stated that the more stark religious statement is that the Maya world was so horrific, that the coming of the Spanish is seen viewed almost with relief. They had a priest prominently placed in the boat, kneeling before a cross. When Seven suggests that her family should go to them, we are all willing Jaguar Paw to agree. He refuses and only historians approve of his decision (as historians know what happens next, namely the death of most of the indigenious population from war and diseases like smallpox). From the point of view of the movie, then the Spanish option would seem the better one.
Is this movie a true, historical depiction of the 16th century Maya?
On balance, the answer would have to be no, it isn't. There are enough broad details and scenery to get a taste of the Maya world; but many of the plot devices are pure fiction or else did happen, but not within Maya civilization. The major argument here is that Mel Gibson wasn't filming a documentary. He was creating an action-adventure movie to entertain theater-goers. But if that same audience is going to treat it as a depiction of true events, then the inaccuracies do need to be ironed out.
* The language isn't 16th century Yucatec Mayan. It's actually modern day Yucatec Mayan, hence there are a lot of Spanish borrow words in it. For example, 'beyora' for 'now' has the Spanish 'hora' in it; while the dog is called 'peco' from the Spanish 'perro'.
* Jaguar Paw's community wouldn't have been hunters living deep in the jungle. In the late Classic period, the Maya were an agricultural people. They did hunt, but rarely, with meat being a luxury meal. The jungle would have all been owned and maintained by a ruler. Even if Jaguar Paw's people lived in the jungle, it would have been in a huge clearing surrounded by fields. They would not have lived in the wilderness of the deep jungle.
* Jaguar Paw's people would have known about the stone cities. Even the most remote Maya village was connected, politically and economically, to a large settlement. There was an extensive road system and the stone cities were plentiful. The local ruler would have not only known about every village in his/her area, but would have had representatives keeping the channels of communication open between all. Supposing that Jaguar Paw had never heard of the city is a little like believing that a modern day person would live in Brooklyn without knowing about Manhattan, or in Etobicoke without suspecting that Toronto existed.
* The Maya women would not have run around bare-chested. Every depiction of the ancient Maya, in books, steles, statues and other carvings shows that they were fully dressed.
* Villages would not have been raided for slaves and sacrificial victims. There was slavery and human-sacrifice in the Maya world, but the victims wouldn't have been the local villagers. They would have been prisoners captured during wars or, even better, the elite from enemy polities. If one ruler could take another ruler, then this heightened his/her prestige. The captured ruler would be publicly humiliated and eventually sacrificed. This would have all happened after a war between the two provinces. It's similar to Saddam Hussein being hanged after the Gulf Wars.
* The Maya did not practice wholesale human sacrifice. The Maya did practice human sacrifice, but not on the industrial scale shown in the movie. The Aztec sacrificed roughly 4,000 people a year; but not the Maya. The Maya people sacrificed a smaller number of people (often just one) less frequently. There were no calendar events requiring it. There is evidence that a human sacrifice happened only in extremity (to end a war) or in the ascension of a new ruler. What was widespread was animal sacrifice or auto-sacrifice (cutting yourself so that your blood falls, but you don't die).
The altar upon which Jaguar Paw is splayed is actually Aztec and was used for that purpose, exactly as depicted. But never by the Maya. They typically threw people into the cenotes with a cord around their necks. The victim then drowned or hanged, whichever happened first.
In short, the sacrificial scene in the movie shows something more akin to the Aztec than the Maya.
* The king wouldn't have just stood by watching the sacrifices. The king acted as High Priest as well. He would have been right in there delivering the speeches and performing the sacrifices. If he hadn't, then he wouldn't have been the divine ruler. The priest would have been.
* The ballcourt wouldn't have been used for 'target practice' on Jaguar Paw and his friends. Even Mel Gibson admitted that this was complete fiction, written in for dramatic tension. It also sets the scene for Jaguar Paw's escape, otherwise it wouldn't have made sense even within the world of the movie. After all, these men could have been better employed as slaves in the lime factories. Therefore I won't bother disputing it, other than to highlight that it didn't happen.
There are many more inaccuracies, but those are some of the main ones.
So we shouldn't watch 'Apocalypto' then?
Please do go ahead! It's a great movie, with some lovely cinematography; though if you hate gore and gratutious violence, then I'd give it a miss. However, it's not a documentary about the Maya. It's a Hollywood movie.
Naturally, if you want to learn all about the true Maya, we'd be happy to welcome you to Mexico!
Chichén Itzá
Various tours, to suit every wallet or time-frame, to the most famous of all the Maya ruins.
Tulum & Xel-Ha All Inclusive
Combine Maya history with natural beauty! Tour the Tulúm ruins, then swim in the Xel Ha natural aquarium.
Endless Tours blog began in May 2010, as a way of passing on interesting information about Mexico.
We are based in the Cancun area, but run tours across Mexico. With over 10 years experience in the field, we know what we're talking about. Please feel free to browse our website to see if there is a tour for you: www.endless-tours.com
The fiesta erupts in parades, music and dancing. Healers, psychics, therapists and Pagan vendors line the shore. Everywhere the fine food, for which Catemaco is nationally famous, is on offer in abundance. The streets are filled with priests and priestesses in their finery. Olmec head-dresses rise, in full plumage, above the throng. This is a celebration, as much as a get-together. 
Thirdly, don't stare at it. Watch it, by all means, but do not look straight into its eyes. That's the feline equivalent of saying, 'would you like a fight?' You don't. It's bigger than you. Instead, face it, but look past it, or at the ground in front of it, or to the side of it. Not the eyes. 
Mel Gibson's epic movie, 'Apocalypto', is already four years old. However, for many visitors to Mexico, this movie is their only source of knowledge about the Maya people. Many tourists point at the steps of real-life structures like El Castillo, then start referencing a particularly graphic scene from 'Apocalypto'. It is clearly time to explore this award-winning blockbuster, with regard to the real-life Maya. 
