Creating a children's book about Sacamch'en de los Pobres

We at Schools for Chiapas are seeking information, ideas, and support for creating a book about Sacamch'en de los Pobres. We'd love your suggestions and any additional information or sources that might be available. We have located the following book - Peregrinación de Nuestros Antepasados by Juan Lopez Gonzalez, 2003, ISBN: 970-607-081-9

This idea for the book evolves around the ancient and modern story of Sacamch?en de los Pobres.

You see Sacamch?en is a real place. Sacamch?en is a massive white cliff with a cave and and an amazing story handed down in the oral tradition since pre-Columbian times. It is a story of a massive snake which lived in harmony in a beautiful lake with people of the Celestial Snakes who left an empire that was destroying mother earth and not respecting father sun or following mother moon. And the story continues to Zapatista times through conquest by the Azetec empire and the Spanish empire ?.

It is a real story that is just dying to be made into a kids? book. If there are some of you who want to help us capture this story and publish it several Schools for Chiapas people are very excited about it. Also if you look at the footage that Jay shot of the Mayan authorities sharing in Tsotsil the part of the story they know, you will see how important this history is to the people who have decided to recover this ancient tradition and place and story ?even to the extent of returning to that specific name for their town.

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Chanalum: People of the Sacred Snakes

Sacamch?en: Sacred White Rocks with Caves

Aspects of a children?s story ? a people learning as they walk seeking to find a better way / promised land. Seeking the center of the earth which is guarded by?. A mountain water story of rivers and lakes and caves and travels. Sacred snakes and evil rainbows. Giving up names to be named; giving up faces to be seen; giving up traditions to find traditions. giving up reason to find reason, giving up places to have a place.

The people leave a Palenque empire which is destroying the sacred earth.
Mayan oppressors; Spiritual oppressors; Aztecs oppressors; Spanish oppressors. Neo-liberal oppressors.
Sacred snakes with horns that break rocks making needed springs.
Search for the promised land of dignity, democracy and justice
Guided by the father sun and mother moon.
Evil water angel and dangerous rainbows.
Turned into monkeys on mountain.
Hiding in caves. Killed by the boiling rains.
Uprising and arrival of others. Accords of San Andres
Nemi Zapata. Viva Zapata.
Rebuild Sacamch?en under yellow oak trees, open a new market, clean the center, and create a center for learning.

Historical Dates for the Story of San Andres
Oct. 12, 1492 ? Columbus arrives in American thinking he has reached India.
Aug. 13, 1521 ? Fall of Tenochitlan, Capital of the Aztec Empire; freedom for Sacamch?en.
March 31, 1528 ? Spanish military force under Diego de Mazariegos invades the highlands of Chiapas.
1539 ? Spanish conquest of the San Andres is completed.
1760 ? possible date where the territory of Sacamch?en was ceded to Chamula.
Oct. 1869 ? massacre at Pomte?bits.
Jan. 1, 1994 ? The first day of the North American Free Trade Agreement and of the Zpatista rebellion against that agreement.
Change into Larensar
Feb. 16, 1996 ? Representatives of the Mexican federal government and EZLN sign the internationally famous ?Accords of San Andres?
April 7, 1999 ? San Andres Sacamch?en de los Pobres presidential offices occupied by a large force of militarized police forces. Ejected by thousands of indigenous San Andreans the following day.
Nov. 30, 2006 ? People of San Andres return to Sacamch?en.

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Tsotsil Vocabulary and characters for the Story of San Andres: desde platicas con autoridades autónomas en San Andrés Sacamch?en de los Pobres y el libro Peregrinación de Nuestros Antepasados by Juan Lopez Gonzalez, 2003, ISBN: 970-607-081-9

Baxakman (Eight Eagles) ? name of the guide for the journeys of the ancestors and cargado of the sacred land.

Bats?ibinik-antsetik- Mayans, men and women.

Bat-ik?op ? Language of the people of Sacamch?en popularly known as Tsotsil.

Chanalum (people of the sacred serpents) ? original or prehispanic name of the people of Sakamch?en.

Ch?ibit ? the plaze where the people come to buy, sell, and interchange products.

Istakostok ? prehispanic colonial name of the town of Sacamch?en imposed by the Aztecas at the end of the 15th century and used by the Spanish to identify this town.

Jolomaltik ? supreme senor of the cave of Sacamch?en who controls difficult situations (Bavakmon)

Jme?tik ? our mother luna. (whose spots are made by beatings of her husband)

Jtotik ? our father sun who protects nature. (whose chief enemy is the rainbow)

Junal ? Most important mountain for peoples nagualas. Where the angel of the lake was sent. Also dios Chac. P107,

Kajtsajebmax ? (hilltop where men are turned into monkeys) the highest mountain in the municipally where the oral tradition says that men were converted into monkeys during the great flood and boiling rains.

Kamikotik ? (our friend) how people from Chamula were called after they peacefully resolved a conflict between the people in ancient times. Now this term simply means friend.

Nachan Caan ? (House of the Celestrial Serpents) Name of an ancient city where the ancerstors of San Andres might have originated. This city is now know as the arquilogical site of Palenque.

K?antulam ? Yellow Oak.

Sakamch?en ? (Little white table) Prehispanic name of the people of San Andres.

San Andres ? Colonial name of the municipality until Feb. 13, 1934. Still used internally by residents as the name of the community.

Tselejilo? ? (Hill of Water) the next to last place where the San Andres was founded.

Ts?otob-ajtik ? red lake of the evil angel who was god of water.

Vokol ? gotta figure out how this god fits in. Zapatista god often mentioned by Zapatista leaders and Marcos.

Ya?alchon ? lake of Sacamch?en where a great serpent lived.