CHAPTER 13 THE INDIAN VOICE IN RECENT MESOAMERICAN LITERATURE 485Ermilo Abreu Gómez (1894–1971)
Ermilo Abreu Gómez was a novelist, poet, journalist, critic, scholar, and educator
who taught in Mexico, the United States, and several Latin American universities. His
work Canek: History and Legend of a Maya Hero(originally published in 1940, and ex-
cerpted in Box 13.1), is a short but complex mosaic of vignettes that take place on a
great Yucatec estate in the late nineteenth century. Although it is ostensibly about the
peculiar and moving friendship between an invalid creole boy (Guy) of old, aristo-
cratic family background, and a Mayan boy (Jacinto Canek) who works as a peon on
his aunt’s and uncle’s henequen plantation, the book is in reality a fictional recon-
struction of the living Mayan memory of a tragic and terrible moment in White-
Indian relations in colonial Yucatán, dating from 1761.
Box 13.1 Canek: History and Legend of a Mayan HeroAbreu Gómez’s story of Canek actually takes place in multilayered cyclical time: Canek was a
pre-Columbian royal title; it was the name of a messianic prophet who lived early in the Colonial
period; it was the name of the martyred hero of 1761 and thus the rallying cry symbolizing all
Mayan heroes from 1761 to 1900; and it was the name of Guy’s Mayan friend who lived at around
the time of the historical present that is portrayed in the novel. It is not difficult to read the novel
as both an indictment of white Mexico and a bid for Mexican reconciliation with its Indian past.
The following passage, depicting the tenderness of Canek’s last days with his frail White
friend, evokes several possible interpretations:When Guy came back from the field he was bent over like a broken cornstalk and was drowsy.
Canek laid him down on the grass. He sat beside him and kept watch over his sleep. In the
shelter of his care, Canek could feel the boy was resting. Without speaking it, in the peace
of his closed eyes, Canek read the message of innocence that lived in Guy’s spirit.
Guy can’t sleep. The night is sour and the winds from the south beat heavily on the limy
earth. A yellow dust clouds the stars. Guy can’t stop coughing. Resting his head in Canek’s
hands he sometimes smiles. Canek tells him ancient tales.
As soon as he woke up, Guy asked for water. He had spent the night sweating and in
pain. Canek took the jug with water collected from the morning dew and gave it to him. Guy
drank with an almost painful anxiousness. Afterward he asked, “Jacinto, why is dew water
so good?” “Because it is filled with light from the stars, and starlight is sweet.”
“Is it true, Jacinto, that children who die are turned into birds?”
“I don’t know, Guy.”
“Is it true, Jacinto, that children who die become flowers?”
“I don’t know, Guy.”
“Is it true, Jacinto, that children who die go to heaven?”
“I don’t know, Guy.”
“Then Jacinto tell me what does happen to children who die?”
“Children who die, little Guy, awaken.”
In the morning Guy was gone. Nobody saw him die. Between the strands of his ham-
mock, he looked asleep. On his pale, delicate lips a light smile also slept. In the corner, not
making any noise, Canek cried like a child.
Tía Charo came near, touched his shoulder and said, “Jacinto, you’re not family. Why
are you crying?” (Abreu Gómez 1979:29–30)