Maximon a.k.a Hermano San Simon

It has been a long time since I have written, primarily because I spent the better part of the past two weeks traveling with my family throughout Guatemala. I wish I had had the chance to write during the trip, as my writing about past events is never as strong, but alas, I´ll make an effort to convey the fun we had and the many crazy and beautiful things we saw.

My family arrived on Sunday, the 18th and took the harrowing drive east from the captial to meet me in Xela. There is nothing like getting passed by a 1980s generation US school bus on a two lane road that is missing one lane due to a mudslide. But they made it and our adventures began the next day with a trip to the nearby towns of Almolonga and Zunil, home of a famed altar to the pre-Columbian Mayan god of the underworld, Maximon . To reach the town of Zunil, about thirty minutes from Xela, you drive through lush farmland where farmers primarily grow vegetables primarily for domestic consumption and for export to El Salvador and Mexico. They farm on mountainsides as steep as airplane trails, rarely using terraces, somehow coaxing life out of the most unlikely spaces. I suppose this is the result of need. And a whole lot of chemicals. The number of men walking down the street going to or coming from a days work spraying the fields is overwhelming.
Arriving in Zunil, we visited the central church, a large colonial building adjacent to a beautiful convent. But i was much more interested in Maximon, supposedly tucked away in a small building behind the church. I don´t know what definition of ¨behind¨ the guide book is using, but it took us two friendly old men in the street and a fifteen minute walk up a steep hill to find Maximon. Maximon sits in a dark room, off a small cobblestone street, waiting for visitors. I expected a wooden statue, somewhat reminicent of the statues of the Virgin that I have seen proceed through the streets of Xela. But modern-day images of Maximon are nothing like this.
Carved out of wood, Maximon is dressed in twentieth century clothes--a dark suit and red tie, black sunglasses, a black top hat. He lounges in a chair in the back of the room, encircled with dripping candles, flower petals and the soft swirls of incense burning on the table in front of him. His hand grasps a bottle of Guatemalan rum and underneath his chair, an empty bed pan sits in waiting. Maximon signifies fertility, the bringer of wealth and luck to all who pay him honor. He is worshipped with offerings of money, Coke, alcohol, flowers and apparently all things hedonistic. I left my two quetzales in the collectionbucket by the bedpan, making a wish as i left the altar, somewhat afraid of what my wish might actually bring. I sadly have no picture of Maximon, as this would have cost another 10 Q, which i did not have at the time. The image on the page I linked to does not do him justice, but it´s a beginning. Apparently the god renowned for his sexual prowess is a bit shy.