053. Un pobre invitó a Jesús a que comiera con él

University of New Mexico | Latin American & Iberian Institute
K’iche’ Maya Oral History Project
No. 053 | 00:12:26 minutes
A Poor Man Invited Jesus to Dine with Him
A young man lived with his mother. They were very poor. They lived in a hut made out of grass, and they had very
little to eat. One day the young man told his mother that he was going to the church to ask Jesus for help. He knelt
before the statue of Jesus in the church. He invited Jesus to go to his house to eat the next day. The statue nodded its
head in agreement. The boy went home and told his mother Jesus was coming to eat with them. They borrowed some
corn and sugar. They made six tamales for the meal with Jesus. While they were waiting for Jesus, a lame and blind
man came and asked them for some food and coffee. The young man gave him two of the tamales, and some of the
coffee he had prepared. The old man thanked him, and told him that Jesus would not be coming, and they should eat
the other four tamales. So the young man and his mother ate them, and then went to sleep. When they awakened they
found that Jesus had purchased a large plantation for them. They woke up in a beautiful house with lots of servants.
Later, the youth’s older brother, also rich, found out that his sibling had become rich. He went to ask him how he got
his riches. The youth told his brother what Jesus had done for them, but he didn’t tell him that Jesus arrived in the
form of a poor beggar. The older brother decided to go ask Jesus for riches just like his young sibling had done. He
went to the church and invited Jesus to eat with him. He made a great fiesta for Jesus. While he was waiting for Jesus
to arrive, a crippled man arrived to beg for food and drink. The rich man sent his dogs to chase the poor beggar away.
Jesus never arrived at the fiesta. The rich man lost all of his riches because he didn’t take care of Jesus who arrived in
the person of a poor beggar.
Un pobre invitó a Jesús a que comiera con él
Un muchacho vivía con su madre. Eran muy pobres. Vivían en una choza hecha de sacate, y no tenían comida. Un
día el muchacho le dijo a su mamá que iría a la iglesia a pedir ayuda de Jesús. El invitó a Jesús que fuera a comer con
él en su casa. Ellos prepararon seis tamales y café para comer con Jesús. Mientras que esperaba la llegada de Jesús,
un hombre inválido y ciego llegó con ellos a pedir comida y bebida. Ellos le dieron dos de los tamales y una taza de
café que habían preparado para Jesús. El limosnero en realidad era Jesús, y él les regaló una finca al muchacho y a
su mamá porque le habían atendido bien. Luego el hermano mayor del muchacho, también rico, llegó con su hermanito para saber cómo llegó a ser rico. El muchacho le explicó a su hermano como Jesús les había ayudado. Pero el
muchacho no explicó que Jesús llegó en forma de un pobre limosnero. El hermano mayor entonces se fue a la iglesia
a pedirle a Jesús por riquezas. Como su hermanito, él invitó a Jesús a comer con él en su casa. El hermano mayor le
preparó una gran fiestaa Jesús. Mientras que esperaba la llegada de Jesús, un pobre méndigo llegó a pedirle comida
y bebida. En lugar de atender al pobre, el dueño de la fiesta envió a sus perros a ahuyentarlo. Jesús nunca llegó a la
fiesta. Por no atender a Jesús que llegó como un pobre méndigo, el hermano mayor perdió todas sus riquezas.
UNM
LATIN AMERICAN &
IBERIAN INSTITUTE
Project Background
The stories and rituals included in this collection were collected between 1968 and 1973. All of them are narrated
in the K’iche’ Maya language of Guatemala with almost all of the narrators speaking the Nahualá-Santa Catarina
Ixtahuacán dialect of that language.
Collected and recorded by
Dr. James Mondloch
Transcribed by
Miguel Guarchaj Ch’o’x and Diego Guarchaj
Funding and support provided by
The UNM Latin American and Iberian Institute and the US Department of Education Title VI National Resource
Center grant.
Title page image provided courtesy of
Dennis G. Jarvis
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