078. Una mujer resucita de la muerte y molesta a su familia

University of New Mexico | Latin American & Iberian Institute
K’iche’ Maya Oral History Project
No. 078 | 00:12:25 minutes
A Woman is Revived from Death and Disturbs Her Family (see no. 98)
When the first Catholic priests arrived in Nahualá, one of them did witchcraft and made the people sick with fever and
coughs. Many men, women and children died from these diseases. At night, after the dead were buried, the priest and
his helpers would go to the cemetery and bring the recently buried back as zombies. They would follow the priest to
a place near Quetzaltenango where they would enter the Santa María volcano (to become slaves to its owner). One
night a dead woman escaped from the group being led to the mountain and she returned home to her husband and
children. They were shocked to see her, because they had buried her the day before. At nightfall she asked her husband
to allow her infant child to sleep with her. When the family awoke they discovered she had eaten most of her baby.
Her husband tried to drive her away, but with no success. Finally he asked the priest how to get rid of the zombie.
The priest told him to make a new coffin and bring it, along with his wife, to mass in the church. The man did as the
priest told him, and in the middle of the mass they grabbed the dead woman, put her in the coffin and nailed it shut.
They then re-buried her in the cemetery. In this manner the family was able to rid themselves of the zombie.
Una mujer resucita de la muerte y molesta a su familia (véase no. 98)
Cuando los primeros sacerdotes católicos llegaron a Nahualá, uno de ellos era un brujo y él causó la muerte de muchos
hombres, mujeres y niños en el pueblo con enfermedades de la garganta y fiebre. De noche, después de enterrar a los
difuntos, el padre y sus ayudantes iban al cementerio y resucitaban a los difuntos como zómbies. Luego los llevaban a
un lugar cerca de Quetzaltenango donde los enterraban en el volcán de Santa María (para convertirlos en esclavos del
dueño del volcán). Una noche una mujer difunta se escapó del grupo que iba al volcán. Ella regresó a su casa con su
marido y sus hijos. Ellos se asustaron al verla, porque sabían que la habían enterrado un día antes. En el anochecer
ella le pidió a su marido que permitiera que su bebé durmiera con ella. Cuando la familia se despertó, descubrieron que
la mujer había comido una gran parte de su hijita. El marido trató de correrla de la casa sin éxito. Por fin el marido
le preguntó al sacerdote como pudo deshacerse de esa zómbie. El padre le ordenó que hiciera un ataúd nuevo, y que
lo trajera a la misa junto con la difunta. El marido hizo lo que le ordenó el padre. En medio de la misa le agarraron a
la zómbie, la metieron en el ataúd, y lo sellaron con clavos. Después la re-enterraron en el cementerio. En esa manera
lograron deshacerse de la zómbie.
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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