New Gibson film stirs objections

GUATEMALA CITY — A new Mel Gibson production about the collapse of the Mayan civilization angered some members of the culture it depicts even before it hit movie theaters today.

Although some Mayans are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya, others among the 800,000 surviving Mayans are worried Gibson's hyperviolent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.

Indigenous activists in Guatemala, once home to a large part of the Mayan empire that built elaborate jungle cities in southern Mexico and northern Central America centuries ago, said the film "Apocalypto" is racist.

Only trailers for the film have been shown in Guatemala, but leaders said scenes of scary-looking Mayans with bone piercings and scarred faces hurling spears and sacrificing humans promote stereotypes about their culture.

"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize because we don't know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May, of the Indian defense group Mayaon, or "We are Maya."

Gibson employed Mayans, most of whom live on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, in the filming of the movie, and said he wanted to make the Mayan language "cool" again and encourage young people "to speak it with pride."

The film has been screened for some U.S. Indians, who praised the use of Indian actors.

Like Indians north of the border, Mayans have seen others co-opt their culture, as in high-class Caribbean resorts such as the Maya Coast and the Maya Riviera. But Indians are largely absent from those resorts, where vacationers tour mock Mayan villages or watch culturally inaccurate mishmashes with "Mayan dancers" performing in feather headdresses and face paint.

"Apocalypto" also portrays Mayan civilization at a low moment, just before the Spanish arrived, when declining, quarreling Mayan groups were focused more on war and human sacrifice than on the calendars and writing system of the civilization's bloody but brilliant classical period.

Outsiders' views of the Mayans have long been subject to changing intellectual fashions. Until the 1950s, academics often depicted ancient Mayans as having had an idyllic, peaceful culture devoted to astronomy and mathematics. Evidence has since emerged that, even at their height, the Mayans fought bloody and sometimes apocalyptic wars among themselves, lending somewhat more credence to Gibson's approach.

Warrior-kings and priests directed periodic wars among the ancient Mayans aimed at capturing slaves or prisoners for labor or human sacrifice. Entire cities were destroyed by the wars, and whole forests cut down to build the temples.

The latest trendy theory is a largely Internet-based rumor that the Mayan long-count calendar predicts a global calamity on Dec. 22, 2012. Some have woven that together with prophecies from the Bible.

"We know the Bible talks about prophecies, and that the Mayas spoke of a change of energy on Dec. 22, 2012, and it [the movie] is somewhat focused on that," said Mauricio Amuy, a non-Mayan actor who participated in the filming of "Apocalypto."

Gibson's movie focuses on one man's struggle to save his family as a metaphor for saving the future of a people.

While they resisted the Spanish conquest longer than most Indians — the Mayans' last rebellion, the War of the Castes, lasted until 1901 — many were virtually enslaved until the early 1900s on plantations growing sisal, used for rope-making, or in the jungle, tapping gum trees.

Discrimination and poverty are probably their greatest enemies today.

Today's Mayans are known mainly for their elaborate rhyming jokes, a cuisine based on pumpkin and achiote seeds, and loose, embroidered white clothing. They're largely peaceful farmers and masons who carry their goods on ubiquitous three-wheeled bicycles over table-flat Yucatán.

Just as Gibson's use of Aramaic in "The Passion of Christ" sparked a burst of interest in that language, some Mayans are hoping "Apocalypto" will do the same for their tongue.

"I think it is a good chance to integrate the Mayan language ... for people to hear it in movies, on television, everywhere," said Hilaria Maas, a Mayan who teaches the language at Yucatán's state university.

Maas, 65, recalls that children were once prohibited from speaking Mayan in school. One sign of progress is Yucatán radio station XEPET, "The Voice of the Mayas," which began broadcasting in the Indian language in 1982.

The station is trying to purge words borrowed from Spanish and revive a purer form of Mayan. It broadcasts all sorts of music — from rock to rap to reggae — with Mayan lyrics.

Still, the percentage of Mayan speakers in Yucatán state fell from 37 percent in 2000 to 33.9 percent by 2005. For a state that advertises the glories of the Mayan culture for tourists, it is having a hard time keeping the present-day Mayans there; many are migrating to the United States.