A TV tale of modern Mayans
Updated: 2013-08-11 08:08
By Randal C. Archibold(The New York Times)
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TIHOSUCO, Mexico - It might be the cleanest Mexican telenovela around.
The passionate love scenes that are a staple of the genre were reduced, bowing to conservative local sensibilities, to a few pecks on the cheek and hand-holding.
It was not the only accommodation made by producers of what is considered the first dramatic television series entirely in an indigenous language, Maya, and with a story line rooted in the community.
"Baktun," which makes its debut this month on Quintana Roo State public television, has the standard melodramatic ingredients of the telenovela form: greed, betrayal, family squabbles, and unrequited love. But "Baktun" is also a cultural journey, blending Mayan ceremonies and beliefs with the tale of a young man who emigrates to New York City to work, distances himself from family and community but eventually returns and learns the value of preserving the community and not forgetting his roots. Or his childhood sweetheart, who has taken an interest in his brother.
Baktun refers to a megacycle of the Mayan Long Count calendar and was deliberately chosen as the title in light of the attention it received last December, when widespread misinterpretations led people to claim that the end of the world was nigh. In reality, one cycle ended and another began.
In the telenovela's case, the cycle is a metaphor for life's ever-changing chapters.
"We wanted to show you could still be proudly Mayan even in this modern world with mass media and digital communication," said Bruno Carcamo, the veteran film and television producer who made the show. "Telenovelas are popular in the Mayan communities, too, but they are not presented in their language or their reality."
The series, in 21 episodes and also packaged as a movie, was shot in this remote village in Quintana Roo State, 225 kilometers southwest of Cancun.
Most members of the cast are residents of the town. On a recent evening, Mr. Carcamo showed some episodes of the drama as well as the full movie in an open-air meeting hall.
"We should never forget our origins," said Maria Elena Tuz Kuvil, 40, afterward. "I could not believe it was in our language. I watch a lot of telenovelas, but none like this."
Many people said the cycle of loss and gain resonated with them, as dozens of young people have left to work in beach resort hotels or the United States. Fewer parents seem to be teaching their children Maya, though Mr. Carcamo said 80 percent of the village speaks it as a first language. During the filming, in fact, he often needed an interpreter to get his point across.
"Parents often say, 'Learn Maya for what? It's better to speak English,' " said Jose Manuel Poot Cahun, 26, who plays the role of the scheming brother.
Entertainment offerings in Maya are sparse. The 2006 Mel Gibson movie "Apocalypto," set during the decline of the Mayan empire, was almost entirely in Maya, but it was criticized for focusing on the civilization's violent practices.
With Quintana Roo State television financing 60 percent of the $250,000 budget, the screenwriters carefully chose their principal villain, steering clear of making any connection to the booming tourist development that has troubled some communities and instead settling on a vague multinational industrialist bent on exploiting their land.
One translation stumped them, so they simply avoided it. "New York" is referred to as "the far, faraway town."
"What," asked Hilario Chi Canul, who plays the leading man in "Baktun," "is a York?"
The New York Times
(China Daily 08/11/2013 page12)