5 Ajaw 8 Yax: Drawing by Jorge Pérez de Lara
5 Ajaw 8 Yax (October 5, 2023) Announcing Our 2023 Call for Minigrants!: Building on the Momentum of the Fifth Congreso This month, we are pleased to announce our 2023 call for applications for our minigrant program! All of those who have participated in our previous Congresos are eligible, and we will be granting up to $200 each for Maya teachers to organize and teach a series of workshops for students and members of their communities to learn to read and write in the Maya script and to explore and learn about the calendar. We are currently sending out applications to our email list of former Congreso participants. However, if you have participated in any of the previous five Congresos and you have not received an application, please feel free to email us:
We currently have funds to cover approximately 10-15 applications, and our Executive Committee will be reviewing these applications as we receive them. We will focus on projects scheduled for the remainder of this year and the beginning of 2024, and we are especially interested in innovative projects that involve the production of video content that we could post on our website and YouTube channel, as well as dynamic classroom instruction. Recipients must all produce a report with photo documentation within a month following the completion of their workshops. We are looking forward to reviewing applications and announcing the next recipients in our upcoming blog! Meanwhile, following my presentation on the meaning of the Maya winal of Yaxk’in at the Fifth Congreso in San Cristóbal de las Casas this past summer, I had the honor of being invited to present an English version of this presentation for the University of Pennsylvania Pre-Columbian Society on Saturday, September 9, 2023. If you are interested in seeing a recorded version of this lecture, along with many other excellent lectures, I highly encourage you to subscribe to the PCS and then clicking “Meeting Archives” located here:
https://precolumbian.org/membership/
I am also honored to have been invited to present this same lecture on Yaxk’in once again in Spanish on Zoom for the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas (UNICACH) in Chiapa de Corzo on Friday, October 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm (Mexico Time) as a part of the degree program in Archaeology. The Coordinating Assistant for the Archaeology Degree, Lic. Maria Mendez Vasquez, is a Ch’ol speaker who was a participant in the previous Congreso, and she kindly offered me an invitation to present at this event in anticipation of the annular solar eclipse to follow on Saturday morning, October 14th. Please feel free to contact Maria Mendez Vasquez for further details:
This eclipse will trace a path from where I live in Northern California, down through the Mundo Maya and into South America. Please remember to not look directly at the ring of sunlight from an annular eclipse, but enjoy it safely if you are in the path of visibility! All of us at MAM wish you all a peaceful and beautiful harvest season, and we very much look forward to awarding our newest round of minigrants!
Jokox ‘a wälä,
Michael Grofe, President
MAM