5 Ajaw 13 Yaxk’in: Drawing by Jorge Pérez de Lara
Altar with the twenty named Maya days from the top of the newly opened Chuwi Kortel scenic overlook above Santa Cruz La Laguna, Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, August 8, 2026.
5 Ajaw 13 Yaxk’in (August 10th, 2026)
The work of MAM shall continue:
Our final blog, announcing the transfer of MAM to the Ajt’zib’ab’ MAM. Today, I reach out to you all from Jaibalito on the northern shore of Lake Atitlán to announce that we are heretofore placing MAM where it has always belonged—in the capable hands of our Maya friends and colleagues! It is with a heavy heart and much hope that I announce that this is my final blog post on our website, and that I am at last stepping down from my position as President of MAM after ten years. After much debate and ongoing discussion, and a long absence without publishing our blog, we announce that we will be transferring the MAM name to our Maya colleagues, who have requested that they be able to continue to use the name, which was really always theirs to begin with. It shall now be known as Ajtz’ib’ab’ Maya Antiguo para los Mayas, or Ajtz’ib’ab’ MAM, and we will be stepping down in our role as a non-profit based in the United States.I know how much many of you would like to continue to contribute. Here is the link to the new website and blog for the Ajtz’ib’ab’ MAM, where you can now make donations directly: https://ojermayatzib.blogspot.com/
Here is a direct link to their donation page, which uses an easy PayPal link: https://ojermayatzib.blogspot.com/p/donaciones.html
In the past ten years of my role as President of MAM, and in the more than twenty years of our organization’s existence, we have been privileged to come to know so many amazing Maya people. We have been pleased to see and celebrate the professional achievements of so many people who have participated in the MAM programs. We have been so encouraged to see the Sak Chuwen group continue their work with their conference that just wrapped up in El Remate with Nikolai Grube. It has been so fulfilling to see this work blossom and grow. In addition, in
discussions with the Ajtz’ib’ab’ Congreso Team that we have been working with for many years, they requested that they be able to use the MAM name as they continue the work that we all began so many years ago. In so doing, they are currently working with pairs of representatives, a woman and a man, from multiple Maya regions across three separate countries. It is their stated goal to continue to reach out to as many Mayan language speaking people as possible in an effort to help preserve Mayan languages and cultures, and to continue to teach them. Placing the control of MAM into Maya hands, which was the original intent of our name, feels like the right thing to do.
Our current status as MAM, the non-profit based in the United States, will now shift to an organization of Maya scholars in multiple countries who will be responsible for raising their own funds to continue the work of teaching about Maya writing and the calendar to as many different Mayan communities as possible. This will involve some growing pains and challenges as the Ajtz’ib’ab’ MAM continues to develop its own self-directed agenda, working to raise funds and organize Congresos in the future on their own. There is a concern that we, as MAM, are no longer going to be able to serve in the role we have assumed for so many years as the outside organizers and raisers of funds, but we know that this transition is good and right, and we trust that they will make excellent decisions to continue this work long into the future. This work is deeply personal, and it is one of the most effective ways for Maya people to learn about their past, celebrate their present, and take pride in their cultures and language so that they do not continue to disappear. It is such an important way to ensure that children and adults from many different Mayan language communities learn about and take pride in the contribution of their own cultures and their remarkable achievements.
On a personal note, as I take a step back from the role of being President of MAM, I will continue to offer my services as a teacher and scholar. Just this month, I had the good fortune of being invited to teach four days of introductory workshops for the local elementary school in the Kaqchikel community of Jaibalito, Guatemala, where I bought a house nearly five years ago. It was the first time I taught an introductory workshop on Ancient Maya writing for the children of Jaibalito, and I was warmly received! It was a great honor and a pleasure to share some of what I have learned with them, especially introducing them to the ways in which the 260-day calendar works. Very few of them even knew their own birthday in the Kaqchikel system of their ancestors, and I had the opportunity to share these dates with them and to explore with them the remarkable ways in which the widely shared count of 260 days works. I started with the 3rd graders, continuing the next day with 4th graders, then 5th graders on the third day, and the last day was with the 6th graders. I hope to continue this in the future, and I know it means so much to them.
Thank you for all of your continued support and interest in helping so many of our Maya friends and colleagues. May this important work continue to grow and prosper in the future.
Sib’alaj Maltyöx,
Michael Grofe, President MAM