Lords of Xibalba
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by Donald Patterson

Dear Jessica,

One day my tocayo (a person with the same name), Don Knoles, a painter and freelance reporter in San Miguel, encouraged me to write something about Mesoamerican archaeology for the public. He only requested that I not write about archaeological field methods and techniques, which he finds boring, and hinted that I might try to be a little philosophical.

So I began to reflect upon the possibilities. In the process, I asked myself if the sum or even portions of my life's journey would be interesting to others. This book began to take shape in my head and you, Jessica, gave the book purpose.

You asked for my advice about your education and professional life. You were at a crossroad and tormented by indecision. I understood this, having faced the same situation many times in my life. Indeed, I am tormented with indecision even as I write, because the fear of making a bad decision in my professional life is surpassed by my fear of giving you bad advice.

The Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque
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Although our lives have taken different paths, we have experienced some similar patterns. I have watched you traveling down the road of your life for 27 years. You have migrated north to New York. This was the same age I was when I crossed the border south and came to Mexico. It was the beginning of something new and strange for me. While I did not end up doing what I thought I had prepared for, everything I had previously studied, when correctly applied, turned out to be useful. Like the person in the poem by Robert Frost that stands in an autumn wood before a fork in the trail, you seem to have reached diverging paths in your life just as I did, and many of us do, at your age.

You recently expressed a desire to change your life because of the dilemma that you really like your boss but feel your job activities utilize neither your studies nor potential. In all fairness you do admit that you have learned something of human relationships and diplomacy as the Trade Representative to the US Mexican Chamber of Commerce in New York.

I guarantee that you will be able to use these experiences in the future; so your time at the Chamber has not been wasted. Just make sure that you utilize those social qualities and graces that you picked up in the Chamber with your boss and fellow employees if and when you decide to leave. Unfortunately, I didn't always do this.

The Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque
*

You have to make your own decision about what path you will take, but I have written the following tale so that you can examine a portion of the journey I took, the people and institutions that made it possible, and the decisions both good and bad that I made. So it is, each time I have sat in front of the computer to write, you have been present. You are the reason for the form and content that the text takes.

If there are any lessons to be learned from my life, it is important that I be truthful. Dr. Paul Kirchoff said, "… if history is to be written; what really counts are the events to which date and locality can be assigned – the rest are mere mythology." Hence, the people, places, institutions and conversations in this journey are real, as my memory recorded them. If on the other hand, I ascribe motives to any of the people in the tale, and I am correct, it is merely coincidental. Your mother says that I am not a good judge of character or anything that is Mexican. There you have it.

The Mesoamerican experience and my journey on the road to the world of Xibalba began in a book, The Popol Vuh.

Early on my adventure, I came across a reference in Coe's The Maya to an ancient 16th century manuscript called the Popol Vuh. Miraculously, I found a copy of the first English translation of the manuscript a week later at a book sale at the Public Library in San Miguel. I paid 80 cents for the hardback copy of what the author of the edition referred to as the "Sacred Book of the Quiche Maya." It was difficult reading because of my complete lack of knowledge of the subject, and I was forced to consult all of the copious footnotes. This distracted me from the storyline so often that I had to immediately reread almost every page in order to make heads or tails of it. In spite of this, I couldn't put the book down. While I found the creation myths fascinating, I was particularly impressed by the story of the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque, and their journey and experiences in the ancient Maya underworld known as Xibalba.

The Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque
*

From the moment these young twins stood indecisively at the crossroad, to the end of the game they were destined to play, the twins were subjected to the deceptive trickery and punishments of dark Lords that ruled the Underworld with menacing plague-like names (Blood Gatherer, Demon of Pus, Demon of Jaundice, Skull Scepter, Bloody Teeth, and Bloody Claws). As one writer explained, "Even today their names bring to mind images of sickness, disease and death."

Looking back with some amusement, I have probably encountered all of these archetypes during my journey and believe you will too. That is why I have used their story as an analogy to our own journey through life. The mythical tale provides us with clues for the daily challenge of winning the endgame.

There are eight chapters to this journey. I have named each chapter after the houses of testing in Xibalba. They are about the people, the environment, the financing and the politics of the different archaeological projects I worked on over most of a thirty-year period of my life. Since only six houses are mentioned by name in the Popol Vuh, and, keeping in mind Mesoamerican preoccupations, I have taken the liberty of creating two more. The Epilogue, titled, "The Nine Lords of the Night," is about the vehicle I most often used on my journey, The National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico. It is known to Mesoamerican scholars everywhere simply as INAH.

*

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Donald Patterson: I have been called a lot of things in my life. I have had to listen to a lot of heated and vitriolic language used to describe me. I have been called , a SOB, a liar, a jerk, a hick, a misogynist, a communist, a homophobic, a racist, a bastard, a nigger-lover (Shreveport Louisiana police station – spring break, 1959), a bore, a cad, a Republican, a Democrat, a redneck and just yesterday, cantankerous. These are just names my English-speaking friends call me. Needless to say, the list in Spanish is much longer, but here are a few: pendejo, ensansato, insipido, carbron, pinche, gringo, pinche gringo, anarchista, communista, capitalista, bolio, maricon, diablo, culero etc, etc, etc. However, I have a different image of myself.

"Oh, would some Power the gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!"

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