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Late in the evening, a group of dancers gather in a dimly lit house on a dusty road in the town of Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, 85km north of Guatemala City. Chicken buses, ox-pulled carts, and cars rush by the open door. Still, the people inside pay no mind to it. The spiritual guide inside the house meticulously lights the candles lined on the cement floor of the house. As the wicks burn in the dark, a set of masks is pulled out of cardboard boxes and placed by the candles. These are the visages of the characters of Rabinal Achí or “Dance of the Tun”.

This Maya song-drama-dance tells the story of the conflict between Rabinal Achí and the K’iche Achí. It was was first published in Europe in 1862 as the result of a translation made by Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a noted French writer and ethnographer, during his time as an Abbé of the town of Rabinal. To this day, extremely proud of their heritage, the people of Rabinal still perform the play every year.

The spiritual guide begins a chant. He calls out the names of the dancers’ grandfathers in Achí, a language spoken in the Guatemalan department of Baja Verapaz. He then grabs a bottle of clear alcohol, and pours it into a small glass. Delicately, he gives each mask a sip. According to the local mask maker, Jesus Iboy Osorio, the oldest mask is nearly one hundred years old. The others are between 10 and 20 years old.

The spiritual guide continues his chant. His prayer is accompanied by a tun-a wooden drum of sorts made out of a hollow trunk-and a trumpet. This vigil of the masks and solemn prayer is how he asks the spirits of the ancestors for permission to perform the dance. After he concludes, a ritual fire is lit in the house’s backyard.

Over the next few days, seven similar rituals took place in the seven sacred sites around the town of Rabinal. One of them took place in Cerro Kajyup, a nearby hill. It was attended by some of the dancers. There, the spiritual guide performed a small ritual asking for his ancestors’ blessing before a ritual fire was lit. The solemn sound of a conch shell preceded the fire.

Ten days after the rituals, the dance is held during the town’s fair. The dancers arrive to the site on the back of a pick-up truck. Another troop of dancers were already performing an entirely different act there, but they quickly left once they spotted the cast of the Rabinal Achí. The dancers quickly prepare themselves, and the crowd gathers to watch them tell the town’s most fameous story.

The play begins with the characters dancing in circles. Each revolution is faster than the last. Then, K’iché Achí, the warrior of the Quiché, steps forth and lets out a challenging howl. “Come here, odious chief, despicable chief!,” he screams. “Will you be the first whose very root, whose trunk, I cannot cut? This I swear to do. This I swear to do before the heaven of the Zaman, and the Earth; and for this reason, I need to say no more. Heaven and Earth be with thee, oh most remarkable of the stalwarts-Warrior of Rabinal!”

Despite his bold defiance, the chief of the Quiché is easily defeated. The two-hour long dance then goes on to tell the story of how the K’iché Achí is put on trial after being captured by Rabinal Achí, the son of the King who K’iché Achí challenged.

According the director of the play, José Manuel Coloch, the future of the drama-dance of Rabinal Achí seems bright. “We are very optimistic about it since the youth has been approaching the dance and the younger dancers the longer they perform,” he explains. “A long time ago, it was only the elders who were called upon to perform. Old men would rehearse, but not have the possibility to keep on dancing for a long period of time because of their age.”

For Coloch, who inherited his post as director of the play after his father passed away in 2015, traditions like this are very important. “We should be proud of our stories,” he mentions. “Just like the Spanish are proud of their book, Don Quixote, we should feel proud of the text of Rabinal Achí.”

Undeniably, and officially, Rabinal Achí is a big part of Guatemala’s cultural heritage. In 2008, it was added to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO after being submitted only three years prior. This dance is the only surviving play in Guatemala with pre hispanic origins. It is also the only play completely performed in the Achí languague.

One of the most wonderful aspects of the Rabinal Achí is the masks worn by the dancers. They are made out of Palo de Pito, Erythrina Macrophylla, and they are a strong part of the cultural aspect of the play. As we’ve mentioned before, the oldest mask used in this performance is nearly 100 years old. According to the mask-maker of Rabinal, Jesus Iboy Osorio, the mask-making process requires one to be very meticulous. “The wood of this tree is soft and must be well treated so it can endure wear-and-tear,” he explains. “This wood is very susceptible to moths and may become brittle. The process to make a mask takes about 15 days using Palo de Pito, or just 8 days using Cedar wood, which is more resilient.

And just like careful planning and fine attention to the craft keep the masks working for decades, the dancers of Rabinal’s devotion to their strong tradition has kept the story of their ancestors alive to this day.

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