{"id":2141,"date":"2021-11-01T15:47:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/rosalina-tuyuc-velasquez-calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T01:55:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T01:55:54","slug":"rosalina-tuyuc-velasquez-calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/rosalina-tuyuc-velasquez-calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez: Calling on Ancient Maya Wisdom to Heal Guatemalan Widows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/106_RosalinaTuyuc_Conavigua_1400px-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/106_RosalinaTuyuc_Conavigua_1400px-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/105\/2021\/11\/106_RosalinaTuyuc_Conavigua_1400px-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Rosalina headshot outside in front of buidling\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez: Calling on Ancient Maya Wisdom to Heal Guatemalan Widows<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n    \n          <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span>Maria Emilia Martin<\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">November 1, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p><em>This radio documentary was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/spiritualedge.org\/s1-sacred-steps\/calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">KALW&#8217;s The Spiritual Edge<\/a>, with the support of CRCC\u2019s global project on\u00a0<a href=\"\/topic\/engaged-spirituality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">engaged spirituality<\/a>. Listen to it at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kalw.org\/religion-spirituality\/2021-05-05\/calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">KALW.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 660px;overflow: hidden;background: transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/sacred-steps-calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal\/id1565909025?i=1000538743623\" height=\"175\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>To hear this and other profiles, subscribe to The Spiritual Edge podcast in your favorite podcasting app, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-spiritual-edge-promo\/id1565909025?i=1000520076383\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/1WZVzWzzPwm7zmecZ5dy1t\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spotify<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzcGlyaXR1YWxlZGdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Podcasts<\/a>. Find out more on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spiritualedge.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Spiritual Edge website.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic raged and Guatemala was under lockdown, a remarkable woman told her story \u2014 one that mirrors the long history of struggle of Guatemala&#8217;s Maya, especially that of its women.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy full name is Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez,\u201d she said in Spanish over the phone.<\/p>\n<p>She belongs to the Kaqchikel Maya linguistic community. Tuyuc was born to a family of peasant weavers and artisans some 60 years ago, and was raised as a Catholic in San Juan Comalapa.<\/p>\n<p>She heads an organization she founded in 1985 known by its Spanish acronym as CONAVIGUA, the national coordinator of Guatemalan widows.<\/p>\n<p>The organization fights for the rights of women who were raped and widowed during the country\u2019s long civil conflict. Tuyuc says that what led her to organize this organization came out of her own experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still looking for the remains of my father,\u201d she says. \u201dHe was detained, and forcibly disappeared, along with my husband and a number of other relatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuyuc says that what Guatemalans call \u201cthe time of the violence\u201d \u2014 almost four decades of war that lasted from 1960 to 1996 \u2014 was very painful for her, and for countless Maya women. Especially the bloody 1980s<\/p>\n<p>Her family\u2019s pain, she says, comes from the constant search for her father\u2019s remains and the memory of other loved ones lost to violence. Like it or not, she says, this will always be a source of anguish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven after all this time,\u201d she says, \u201cthe war officially ended more than two decades ago. It\u2019s hard to heal the wounds of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t just the case for Tuyuc, but for thousands of other Maya women who endured similar losses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst there was the very real trauma of what they experienced, either the disappearances or the actual husbands being killed right in front of them. That was true in a number of cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>University of Arizona anthropologist Linda Green writes about the challenges these women faced \u2014 not only emotional loss, but just trying to survive and support their children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor several years. there were no corn crops planted because of displacement. There was enormous food insecurity. Women didn\u2019t have the money to buy the fertilizer. They themselves either had to work those fields or they had to hire mozos to do it for them.<\/p>\n<p>Fear and necessity drove many from their homes. Women also suffered in other ways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChronic headaches, gastritis, inability to sleep,\u201d Green says. \u201cAs well as the physical manifestations of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress syndrome here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even as Tuyuc dealt with these challenges, she came to believe that the universe also gives us a chance to find balance along with the pain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m profoundly grateful to the universe,\u201d she says, \u201cto have grandchildren, to fight alongside other women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She arrived at this understanding gradually. For more than 25 years, she\u2019d questioned why the tragedies of the war had happened: \u201cWhy was there no father, no husband? Why did the Guatemalan army kill so many people?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuyuc found answers to these questions in the teachings of her ancestors, passed down through the generations.<\/p>\n<p>She expresses gratitude \u201cto the many elders \u2014 men and women who told us it isn\u2019t good to keep on suffering, because we were meant to be happy, we were meant to take care of Mother Earth, to protect all life, be it human or animal, the life of everything that lives on this planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After her husband disappeared in 1980, Tuyuc says she sought out an elder. He told her, \u201cYour husband won\u2019t be found, nor will you hear about your father.\u201d And, he said, \u201cNow you have to start thinking about yourself, about your children. Now you have to live for you and for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow,\u201d he told her, \u201cyou have to live your life\u2019s mission.\u201d Only then, she says, did she begin to understand that what the Maya call \u201ccosmovision\u201d is not a religion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany call it spirituality. it\u2019s very complex and holistic,\u201d she says, \u201cencompassing everything \u2014 the cosmos and nature.\u201d Tuyuc says that when the elder asked, \u201cDo you know what your mission is?\u201d the only way she could respond was that she was a woman with a desire to heal, and to help people.<\/p>\n<p>Even after she sought the elders\u2019 advice, Tuyuc discovered she had more to learn from the traditional teachings of her Kaqchikel Maya culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s when I began to understand that it\u2019s good not to feel defeated,\u201d she says. \u201cThat we should keep moving forward, loving life, and our existence.<\/p>\n<p>If it weren\u2019t for these wise teachings, she adds, \u201cI might be like so many women who suffered and basically stopped living because of their pain, who died with no hope for a better life. Traditional religion had taught them to accept suffering in return for a happy afterlife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that sometimes (conventional) religion condemns us to suffer. To not live life fully, and in balance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Embracing her culture, she says, allowed her to make sense of all that had happened, and to heal.<\/p>\n<p>Now she can say that, even with all these threats to life, she\u2019s profoundly grateful to the universe to be alive, to have grandchildren, to fight alongside other women. \u201cAll this,\u201d she says, \u201chas given me strength to continue with my life\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When she was small, Tuyuc\u2019s father was a music teacher who did some work with the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p>She remembers how people would call on him when they were ill, so that even at a young age, indigenous healing traditions were part of her life, although few people publicly acknowledged or valued them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSadly,\u201d she says, \u201cthe colonization of the indigenous made us believe that our knowledge and our practices weren\u2019t worthwhile. It\u2019s something that was ingrained in us since we were little.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because her family was Catholic, she didn\u2019t realize as a child that these Maya practices were all around her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s something that one carries in one\u2019s blood, from knowledge passed down by the grandfathers and grandmothers. My maternal grandmother was a midwife, and my paternal grandfather was a great farmer,\u201d Tuyuc says. \u201cHe would give thanks to the earth, and salute the sun when it rose and set. He would give thanks to the rain, and to the air.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe would ask the earth for permission to work the land,\u201d she says. \u201cSo these are traditions not taught inside churches, but in the collective customs of a people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But because of her very religious upbringing, Tuyuc says that as an adult, it was difficult at first to accept Maya cosmovision.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, it gave Tuyuc a new way of looking at the material world. It also gave direction to her human rights work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 1985, when I began my work with the women, and there was also the commemoration of the 500 hundred years of colonialism,\u201d she says, \u201cthat\u2019s when I began to understand how Maya cosmovision connected with my social and political work.<\/p>\n<p>I began to understand that this cosmovision is also about organizing, about politics, about economics.\u201d Tuyuc says. \u201cSo I started to defend the rights of indigenous people, their way of being, of acting, of thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her work with the widows in the late 1980s and early 90s coincided with a re-awakening of Maya identity \u2014 not only for Tuyuc, but for other indigenous leaders like her countrywoman who is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSister Rigoberta Menchu,\u201d Tuyuc says, \u201chelped me understand the profound complexity of indigenous communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the time peace accords finally ended Guatemala&#8217;s conflict in 1996, the widows association Tuyuc founded, CONAVIGUA, had become one of the leading human rights organizations in the country. Four years after the war ended, she became the first Mayan Kaqchikel to serve in the Guatemalan Congress.<\/p>\n<p>That time was key, she recalls. \u201cOut of 80 congressmembers, six of us were indigenous. Some important legislation was passed, for example, outlawing amnesty for crimes of genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, she says, it was an uphill struggle being in the minority and maintaining her identity as an indigenous woman.<\/p>\n<p>Wearing her traditional traje, a woven skirt and top, Tuyuc would bring her baby to the Congress, nursing her when needed. Some people criticized her for that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I would say, if the popular vote brought me to Congress, then I have to be accepted, as a mother, as a peasant, as indigenous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe Maya women always carry our small children with us when we\u2019re shopping, or weaving, or working,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause that\u2019s when the learning starts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the war, the Guatemalan government established a reparations program for war widows. Tuyuc became its director.<\/p>\n<p>During that time, she worked to dignify the memory of the dead, by leading the effort to exhume mass graves and identify the remains, and also the living, fighting to offer war widows financial and emotional support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went to one of these ceremonies when they were giving money to these women,\u201d says Eliza Strode, an American who\u2019s spent many years in Guatemala. \u201cAnd she would just open her arms and envelop them in a hug. It was so moving. She was so totally present.<\/p>\n<p>The government funded the reparations program for only a few years. With no consistent institutional support, Rosalina Tuyuc continues working with the widows, many of them elderly and dying, in whatever way she can.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Bill Clemens is an alternative medicine practitioner working with the poor in Guatemala. He\u2019s known Tuyuc for some 15 years. Together, they\u2019ve conducted medical missions in neglected communities.<\/p>\n<p>Clemens described Tuyuc as \u201cvery loving and caring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember when an 88-year-old woman came in through the rain. No shoes, no children. The cutest little grandma. I remember Rosalina dried her off, combed her hair, hugged on her to warm her up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jord\u00e1n Rodas, Guatemala&#8217;s human rights ombudsman, believes Tuyuc has become an icon representing brave resistance to military brutality. \u201cShe went to congress and came out with her head held high,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s truly a role model to emulate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although international human rights groups have recognized Tuyuc for her work, she says she doesn\u2019t do it for awards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was growing up, we were taught that the Maya had disappeared, and the only thing that remained of them were tourist attractions,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe grew up being taught we were just worthless Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite some social progress, Guatemala\u2019s Maya still strive to achieve parity and respect in their own country, where opponents feel increasingly free to attack indigenous human rights defenders and practitioners of maya spirituality.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2020, witnesses watched in horror as members of an evangelical sect dragged the internationally recognized Maya healer and plant medicine expert Domingo Choc into a field, doused him with gasoline and set him on fire.<\/p>\n<p>His attackers accused Choc of witchcraft. His death called attention to continuing discrimination in guatemala against those who practice traditional Maya religion.<\/p>\n<p>So Rosalina Tuyuc says she has a renewed commitment to vindicate her culture and its spiritual traditions, and to honor those who\u2019ve perished to keep it alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a revindication,\u201d she says, \u201cNot only of art and culture, but of rights and history.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it\u2019s not a gift. it has a cost. And so, we have to continue to struggle to maintain our culture,\u201d Tuyuc adds, \u201cespecially in memory of those who shed their blood on this sacred land.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/spiritualedge.org\/s1-sacred-steps\/calling-on-ancient-maya-wisdom-to-heal-guatemalan-widows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to the full story on TheSpiritualEdge.org.<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic raged and Guatemala was under lockdown, Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez told her story \u2014 one that mirrors the long history of struggle of Guatemala&#8217;s Maya, especially that of its women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[80,72,81,17],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","tag-engaged-spirituality","tag-indigenous-spiritualities","tag-spiritual-exemplars","tag-violence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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