Story Cycles in Chol (Mayan) Mythology: Contextualizing Classic Iconography
with Nicholas A. Hopkins, Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, Ashley Kistler, and Kayla Price

Appendix III:  Interviews and Recordings
Ch’ol de Chiapas y Campeche, 2002 Field Season

JKJ     J. Kathryn Josserand, Principal Investigator
NAH    Nicholas A. Hopkins, Co-Principal Investigator
ACG   Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, Research Associate

Interview 2002-1. 9 June, 2002

Rafael López Vázquez, male 70 +/-
Originally from Jochintyol, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Now resident in La Cascada, Chiapas
Tila Chol, Spanish

Audio Tape: 2001-1, copied to digital D2002-1; copy delivered to informant
Digital tape D 2002-1 (copy of audio tape 2002-1)
Video tapes V-2002-1 (begins with wife, Teodora, making tortillas), and V-2002-2

Digital photos: "La Cascada" folder; copies delivered to informant. FAMSI Report Figure 8.

Notes: The informant is one of the founders of the ejido La Cascada, Chiapas, about 45 years ago (ca. 1957). In this session, filmed in his house in La Cascada, he relates his personal history and the story of the migration. See also Interview 2002-2.

Transcription: transcription by JKJ, NAH, ACG.

Keyboarding: by Ashley Kistler, 2002-1 [side A], 21 July, 2002, 32 pp., "La Cascada 2002-1 Entrevista 1"

Interview 2002-2. 13 June, 2002

Rafael López Vázquez, male 70 +/-
Originally from Jochintyol, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Now resident in La Cascada, Chiapas
Tila Chol, Spanish

Audio Tape 2002-2 [side A], 2002-3; copy delivered to informant
Digital tape D-2002-2 (copy of the audio tape)
Video tape V-2002-2

Digital photos: "La Cascada" folder; copies delivered to informant

Notes: A long series of folktales (comadre, ’ijk’al, Salvaje, Sombrerón, a transformer [man to woman], Chajk, the Deer and the Toad [race], a dog informer on an unfaithful wife, and a messenger tale); discussion of curers and curing.

Transcriptions by JKJ, NAH, ACG. In Cuaderno: NAH 2002, Ch’ol de Chiapas y Campeche, Numbers 2 and 3.

Keyboarding: by Kayla Price, 17 July, 2002, Comadre story, 6 pp., "Comadre-2002."

Interview 2002-3. 14 June, 2002

Abelardo López Méndez, male 50 +/- and his wife Juana Torres López, female 40 +/-
Originally from: [son and daughter-in-law of Rafael López Vázquez, Interviews 2002-1/2]
Residents of La Cascada, Chiapas
Tila Chol, Spanish
Recorded in their house in La Cascada

Audio tapes 2002-3 [side B], 2002-4
Digital tape D-2002-3
Video tape V-2002-3, V-2002-4

Digital photos: "La Cascada" folder; copies delivered to informant. FAMSI Report Figure 9.

Notes: Personal history of Abelardo López (lost in the woods for three months), and traditional stories (xwuluk ’ok, ch’ix wiñik, ’ijk’al, xñek, comadre); discussion of caves. Personal narrative of Juana Torres (lost in the forest); discussion of tapping trees for rubber, birthing practices.

Transcription: Notes from video tape by NAH.  NAH/ACG transcription of Juana Torres’ discourse.

Keyboarding: by Ashley Kistler, 22 July, 2002, Juana Torres’ narrative, 1 pg., "2002-4B"

Interview 2002-4. 15 June, 2002

Juan Montejo Alvaro, male 70 +/-, and his wife, María Díaz, female 70 +/-.
Originally from San Pedro Sabana, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Resident in Palenque.
Tumbalá Chol; both are effectively monolingual.

Notes: Recorded in their home in Palenque. Karen Bassie interviews them about the caves near San Pedro (e.g., Joloniel, Actiepá Yochib) with the help of Ausencio Cruz Guzmán and Nicholas A. Hopkins. The session includes a discussion of ceremonies formerly held in San Pedro Sabana, including mayordomía ceremonies, dances, and cave visits; no folktales.

Audio tapes 2002-5 and 2002-5A (copied from digital tape D-2002-4); copy delivered
Digital tape D-2002-4
Video tapes V-2002-5 and V-2002-6

Digital photos: "Juan Montejo, Maria Diaz" folder; copies delivered to informants. FAMSI Report Figure 10.

Interview 2002-5. 18 June, 2002

Lucas Arcos Torres, male 75 (or 90 +/-)
Originally from Tumbalá, Chiapas
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol; monolingual

Audio tapes 2002-6 and 2002-7
Digital tapes D-2002-5 and D-2002-6
Video tapes V-2002-7 and V-2002-8

Digital photo: None.

Notes: Informant is a native of Tumbalá and a recognized elder. Personal history including a discussion of pre-Revolutionary conditions and events of the Mexican Revolution as they affected Tumbalá. Traditional fiestas and dances, musical instruments, kinship terms; no folklore.

Interview 2002-6. 18 June, 2002

Antonio Arcos Méndez, male 76, and his brother Gaspar Arcos Méndez, male 49
Originally from Tumbalá, Chiapas
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol; both are monolingual

Audio tape 2002-8
Digital tape D-2002-7
Video tapes V-2002-9 and V-2002-10

Digital photos: "Chiapas Altos" folder

Notes: Both informants are natives of Tumbalá and recognized ceremonial practitioners. Discussion of mayordomía practices in the past, and traditional stories. See also Interview 2002-8.

Interview 2002-7. 18 June, 2002

Dominga Lara, female 64
Originally from Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol and Spanish

Audio tape: microdisk of Karen Bassie’s, to be dubbed as 2002-9
No digital recording
No video recording

Notes: The informant is a bilingual Ladina from Salto de Agua, resident in Tumbalá. Interview and recording by Ashley Kistler.

Interview 2002-8. 19 June, 2002

Antonio Arcos Méndez, male 76, and his brother Gaspar Arcos Méndez, male 49
Originally from Tumbalá, Chiapas
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol; both are monolingual

Audio tape 2002-10
Digital tape D-2002-8
Video tape V-2002-10

Digital photos: "Chiapas Altos" folder

Notes: Recorded in their house in a rainstorm; tapes difficult to hear and video dark. A series of short versions of folktales. See also Interview 2002-6.

Interview 2002-9. 19 June, 2002

Agustina Sánchez Hernández, female
Originally from
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Spanish and Chol

Audio tape 2002-11
No digital recording
No video recording

Notes: The informant is a Ladina from Tumbalá. Interview and recording by Ashley Kistler.

Interview 2002-10. 19 June, 2002

Juan López Peñate, male
Originally from
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Spanish and Chol

Audio tape 2002-12
No digital recording
No video recording

Notes: Informant is a Tumbalá schoolteacher. Interview and recording by Ashley Kistler.

Interview 2002-11. 20 June, 2002

Juana Karen Peñate Montejo, female 25 +/-
Originally from Tumbalá, Chiapas
Resident in Tumbalá, Chiapas
Spanish and Chol

No audio tape recording (but cassette copy made from D-2002-9, loaned to XEXPUJ)
Digital tape D-2002-9
No video recording

Digital photos: "Chiapas Altos" folder. FAMSI Report Figure 11.

Notes: Informant is Private Secretary to the Municipal President, and a published Spanish/Chol poet. Recorded in her office in the Presidencia, Tumbalá.

Interview 2002-12. 12 July, 2002

Juan Alvaro Montejo, male 45-50
Originally from Francisco I. Madero, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Resident in Ejido Flores Magón, Campeche
Chol and Spanish

Audio tape 2002-13 [side A only]; copy delivered to informant.
Digital tape D-2002-10
Video tape V-2002-11

Digital photos: "Flores Magon" folder; copies delivered to informant. FAMSI Report Figure 12.

Notes: The informant was born in Francisco I. Madero, Chiapas, and is one of the founders of the Ejido Flores Magón, Campeche. Recorded in his house in Flores Magón. Discussion of the organization of the ejido and the process of migration. Folktales (kichañob, witches, a Biblical creation story).

Transcription: 12 pp. of single-spaced Spanish translation from the tape, by ACG and JKJ; JKJ Cuaderno.

Interview 2002-13. 13 July, 2002

Juan Guzmán Sánchez, male 51
Originally from the ranchería El Trapiche, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Resident in Ejido Manuel Castilla Brito, Campeche.
Tumbalá Chol.

Audio tape 2002-1; copy delivered to informant
Digital tape D-2002-11
Video tape V-2002-12

Digital photos: "Manuel Castilla Brito" folder; copies delivered to informant. FAMSI Report Figure 13.

Notes: Informant is one of the founders of the ejido in Campeche, along with many members of his family. Recorded in his house in the ejido. Story of the migration and local conditions. No folklore (knew no stories).

Interview 2002-14. 18 July, 2002

Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, male 65
Originally from San Pedro Sabana, Chiapas
Resident in Palenque, Chiapas
Spanish

Audio tape 2002-15
No digital recording
No video recording

Notes: See Interviews 2002-15 and 2002-16. Informant has been a colleague of Josserand and Hopkins for 25 years, and has participated in most of their Chol research. Recorded in the project house in Zoh Laguna, Campeche. Personal history from his childhood to late youth, when he moved to Palenque and began to work first with Moisés Morales in La Cañada, and then with Merle Greene Robertson.

Interview 2002-15. 19 July, 2002

Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, male 65
Originally from San Pedro Sabana, Chiapas
Resident in Palenque, Chiapas
Spanish

Audio tape 2002-16
No digital recording
No video recording

Notes: See Interviews 2002-14 and 2002-16. Personal history from his first jobs in Palenque to his work with Josserand and Hopkins at CIS-INAH (CIESAS) in México City in the 1970s, through the Mesas Redondas de Palenque and on to the present, including his fall from the roof of the new site museum at Palenque, and the treatment and cure of his broken hands and back.

Interview 2002-16. 22 July, 2002

Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, male 65
Originally from San Pedro Sabana, Chiapas
Resident in Palenque, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol

Audio tape 2002-17
Digital tape D-2002-12
Video tape V-2002-13

Digital photos: "Chencho" folder. FAMSI Report Figure 14.

Notes: See Interviews 2002-14 and 2002-15. Folktale about a girl who sees the dead walking on Todos Santos, and is given a candle by an old woman. Next year at Todos Santos, she must protect herself by holding an infant (a pure soul) to avoid being taken by the dead.

[End of interviews and recordings, 2002 field season]

Other Materials Processed during the 2002 Field Season

2001, tape 2001-3 [side A], Interview 4. 25 July, 2001

Maribel Sánchez Gómez, female, and her father, Miguel Sánchez Méndez
Originally from Arroyo Azul, Salto de Agua, Chiapas
Resident in Ejido Chichonal, Calakmul, Campeche
Tumbalá Chol and Spanish

Audio tape: 2001-3 [side A]

Photos: prints delivered to the informants

Transcription: by Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, 2001-2

Keyboarding: by Ashley Kistler, 18 July, 2002, 19 pp., "Chichonal 2001-3 Entrevista 4"

1999 interview by Kristen Smith. 15 January, 1999

Rosa López and her grandmother, María Solís Montejo
Originally from Chiapas (grandmother) and Zoh Laguna (granddaughter)
Resident in Zoh Laguna, Calakmul, Campeche
Tumbalá Chol

Audio tape: Kristen Smith recording; copy sent to JKJ/NAH

Transcription: Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, Kathryn Josserand, Nicholas A. Hopkins, 26 July, 2001.

Keyboarding: by Ashley Kistler, 22 July, 2002, 2 pp., "El cuento de Rosa Montejo"

1999 interview by Kristen Smith. 12 May, 1999

Rosa López, female
Originally from Chiapas
Resident in Zoh Laguna, Calakmul, Campeche
Tumbalá Chol

Audio tape: Kristen Smith recording, copy sent to JKJ/NAH

Transcription: Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, 2001 (partial)

Keyboarding: by Ashley Kistler, 22 July, 2002, 1 pg., "The Curandero"

2001 interview by Karen Bassie. March, 2001

Felipe Pérez Moreno [Montejo?]
Joloniel, Tumbalá, Chiapas
Tumbalá Chol

Audio tape: Karen Bassie recording, copy sent to JKJ/NAH

Notes: Cuento de la Virgen

Transcription: Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, 2001-2

Keyboarding: by Kayla Price, 16 July, 2002, 27 pp., "Bassie-2001"

Ch’ol Plant Names

A list of plant names drawn from the Aulie and Aulie (1978) dictionary by Kathryn Josserand and Kayla Price, augmented by Ausencio Cruz Guzmán, and partially sorted by him into life form, generic, and specific classes; with notes on their uses. Participants: Kathryn Josserand, Kayla Price, Nicholas A. Hopkins, and Ausencio Cruz Guzmán.

Keyboarded: by Kayla Price, 19 July, 2002, 19 pp., "Plant names-2002"

Ch’ol Lessons

A set of beginner to intermediate constructed conversations in Chol by JKJ, designed to introduce common vocabulary, grammar, and discourse style.

Keyboarded: by Ashley Kistler, "Chol Lessons" folder

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