043. Una pareja pretensiosa fue castigada

University of New Mexico | Latin American & Iberian Institute
K’iche’ Maya Oral History Project
No. 043 | 00:11:56 minutes
A Pretentious Couple was Punished
A married couple was very hard working and puritanical. They worked hard and had no vices. They believed
the other people were wasting their time going to church on Sundays when they could be working. When they
went to market, they would criticize others for drinking alcohol. One day, when they were old, they went to
market. While they were there they saw people drinking, and they seemed very happy. The old couple decided to
try some alcohol. But they were not accustomed to drinking, and so they got very drunk. They tried to return to
their house, but they kept falling into the wheat fields that were planted alongside the road. As they tried to stand
up they would grab hold of the wheat and uproot it. In their efforts to stand up they destroyed two cuerdas (1/2
acre) of wheat. They were arrested and sent to jail. Since they were very old, they couldn’t bear being incarcerated, and they both died in jail. The moral of the story is that we should not judge others because we don’t know
what errors we may commit.
Una pareja pretensiosa fue castigada
Había una pareja que era muy trabajadora, pero a la vez muy puritano. Ellos trabajaban duro y no tenían vicios.
Ellos creían que la gente perdía su tiempo cuando iban a la iglesia en vez de ir al campo a trabajar. Cuando
la pareja iba al mercado, criticaban a la gente por tomar alcohol. Un día cuando eran ya ancianos, fueron al
mercado como era su costumbre. Allá encontraron a algunas personas borrachas. Los viejos vieron que los
borrachos estaban bien felices, y por fin ellos decidieron a probar el alcohol. Como no estaban acostumbrados a
tomar, se pusieron bien borrachos. Querían regresar a su casa, pero a cada rato se caían entre el trigo que estaba
sembrada a la orilla del camino. Ellos agarraban el trigo tratando de levantarse, pero así arrancaban el trigo. Por
fin destruyeron dos cuerdas de trigo. Fueron arrestados y encarcelados. Ellos eran muy ancianos y no aguantaron estar en la cárcel, y los dos murieron allá. La moraleja de este cuento es que no debemos juzgar a nuestros
prójimos porque no sabemos qué errores podamos cometer.
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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