Mexican Hometowns

I arrived in Estacion Wadley fried and frazzled by the voyage, with a
splitting headache (from lack of coffee). And yet as soon as I got to
this place in the high desert where the Great Medicina lives - it all
got much better.

Everyone remembers me, and despite that, I am made welcome, warmly
greeted, doors are opened up to me.

Even if it is not ingested the Great Medicina emanates healing powers
here in this place in the high desert where she lives, where people
have made Pilgrimage to Her for at least 3,000 years.

Home is not where you come from. Home is where you are going to. Home
is where you always go back to. And, therefore, I have two very
different hometowns in Mexico.

My other hometown is Laconja, Chiapas, a Lacondon Mayan pueblo in the
middle of what remains of the Lacondon Jungle (near the ruins of
Bonapak, near the border with Guatamala).

I spent much of the winter of 2006 there. Then went to Guatamala and
Hondurus. Then returned. And I will return there again.

The ancestors of the Lacondon Mayan lived in the cities of the
Yucatan. They resisted the Spanish until the 18th Century. When the
Yucatan was mostly conquered they made Exodus to the darkest, deepest
jungle in Central America.

They created a new agriculture. They made gardens in the jungle. They
kept the jungle between themselves and so-called civilization until
1950.

And then an airstrip was built near the ruins of Bonapak.

First came the archeologists, then came lunatic, evangelical,
christian missionaries from California.

The missionaries found two Lacondon Mayan pueblos.

In Laconja the Shaman/Chief was a funny dude, by all reports, he
brought a lot of mirth into his jungle world. He thought the
missionaries were complete idiots, in a funny way. Everyone accepted
the missionaries as you would accept the village idiots.

But then the Shaman/Chief died young, with no successor.

It was all the evangelicals needed to rip this indigenous culture asunder.

In the other Lacondon Mayan pueblo after nearly 60 years of
evangelical christian effort cheese-us christ is accepted in the
pantheon of the gods as a minor god of commerce.

But in Laconja about 40% of the pueblo are now lunatic, evangelical,
christian terrorists.

Five years ago one of the last traditional shamans of Laconja, an
elder, was doused with gasoline and burnt to death (see
www.libbyhome.blogspot.com) for trying to preserve the tribe s
entheogen tradition.

Ishmael is the son of the Shaman/Chief and the owner of the Tucan
Verde (check it out next time you are in Chiapas). He refuses to
refute and deny who he is. He is the most visible resistance. His
oldest son was murdered in January.

We are brothers. His fight is my fight. And to the lunatic,
evangelical, christian terrorists I am a gringo that needs a dousing
of gasolina and a bic.

Laconja is one of my Mexican hometowns, and yet it is a scary place.
There I got lost in the jungle. There the Great, White Worm was
implanted in my head (see www.libbyhome.blogspot.com).

And yet here in Estacion Wadley the Great Medicina rules.

The Huecholes, after traveling for at least 500 miles, are arriving
for the Pilgrimage to Her.

We are all in her emanations/resonations.