October 2020, ScientificAmerican.com 79FROM OUR ARCHIVES
The Storm God’s Tale. Zach Zorich; December 2014.
scientificamerican.com/magazine/saAS A CHILD, Rafael Tarano ( 1 ) learned the stories of the Lacandon
gods—from Mensabak and Chak Aktun to Hachakyum, the
supreme creator, to Akyantho, god of foreigners and technology.
He also learned how to make the traditional Lacandon offerings
at the sacred sites around the lake. But times have changed—
and the Lacandon have changed with them. No one makes the
offerings anymore, Tarano says. Everyone in the community—
about 19 families in all—has either converted to evangelical
Christianity or does not practice a religion at all, Fabiola Sanchez
Balderas explains.
The families live in a village at the southern end of the lake with
two churches, an administrative building where a small police
force is headquartered, four tiendas that sell essential goods and
snacks, and a new tourist center. People grow food for their
personal consumption in nearby fields called milpas. A gravel
road connects the village to the world outside the rain forest ( 2 ).The Mexican government designated the territory around the lake
as the Metzabok Floral and Faunal Protection Area, which offers
the land some legal protections that help the Lacandon people
to maintain their way of life. They also receive some income from
the Mexican government for taking care of the protected area.
Tarano, like his ancestors who settled this area in the aftermath
of the Spanish conquest, views religion as essential to meeting
whatever challenges the future holds. “I don’t know who the true
god is, Hesuklisto [Jesus Christ] or Hachakyum,” he says, “but in
bad times it is believe or die.”2
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