Incantations

In 1973, Ambar Past, American-born Mexican poet, came to the Chiapas highlands of Southern Mexico and encountered the very poor Mayan women who lived in the region. She taught herself Tzotzil, the Mayan language and began to realize that the women often spoke in poetic couplets and metaphors, echoing voices that lived some 500 years ago.

Now after 30 years' work, 150 Mayan women from Taller Leсateros (Woodlanders' Workshop), a paper- and book-making collective founded by Ms. Past in 1975 in the Chiapas city San Cristуbal de las Casas, have produced what may be the first book of Mayan women's poetry created almost entirely by them, and translated into English.

When I first got my copy of this book, I took it home and spent an evening looking at the powerful drawings and reading the versed passed down from generation to generation and I was enthralled.

The book, "Incantations," is a weirdly beautiful volume made from 295 pages of recycled and handmade paper with silk-screened illustrations. The cover is a three-dimensional rendering of the face of Kaxail, Mayan goddess of the wilderness, in recycled cardboard mixed with corn silk and coffee. Her eyes are excised and she stares out with an eerie power.