PDF (Lo-Res) - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

I'm sorry to say it was pretty well agreed long
before he was laid to rest in a pine box that Manvel
K'obyox had become an old fool. He had known
better days in his youth, and that had assured him if
not respect at least a bit of tolerance.
At the age of ten he had left Zinacantan Center to
work in San Cristobal to help pay off the debts that
his father had accumulated during his term as an
officer in the religious hierarchy. When he was
fifteen Manvel (pronounced Monvel) came home
and attended school for five years. His ability to
speak and write Spanish won him the nomination for
sacristan, a post he served faithfuly for the unprecedented
span of fifteen years, followed by three
years as scribe. After such auspicious beginnings, it is
surprising that he never rose above the first level in
the hierarchy. When I knew him, at the age of sixtythree,
he was eking out a precarious living as a salt
merchant and a corn farmer, but as he complained
querulously to me, "Even the dogs are eating my
corn!"
Manvel K'obyox
FIGURE 10.—Manvel K'obyox, 1961 (photo by Frank Cancian).
322
On Christmas Eve we happened to meet in front
of the church where the godparents of the two
Christ Children were passing out drinks. Manvel
asked me to buy him a drink for the occasion. When
a Ladino suggested he take advantage of the godparents'
generosity, he protested, his voice heavy with
scorn, "Their liquor's not worth a nickel!" Then he
lectured us on their outrageous stinginess. "But buy
me a drink. It's my birthday!" We were joined by the
tiresome Ladino who soon declared he was leaving,
at which old Manvel turned to me and loudly
confided, "Chickens and turkeys go to roost early,
but we are men!"
I recall one rainy afternoon walking to San Cristobal
and seeing Manvel topple monumentally over the
horizon into the mud. I watched him lying convulsed
in drunken laughter while his wife, also
laughing, tried to gather up his hat and his pack.
Once, when Romin Teratol and I were travelling
together on the town truck, Romin gulled the old
man with some tall tale. When he realized that he