The 4 Corns and the Races they Birthed!
This is a true story. It is excerpted from an unpublished novel of mine, The Water Witch, an adventure and love story that takes place in the middle of the brutal Guatemalan civil war. Regardless, this chapter is paraphrased as closely to the actual 'lesson' as I am able to reconstruct, only in reality I was the squirming gringo as the Mayan medicine woman gave her teaching on the four kinds of corn.
“So the creator Jaguars finally decided they would try again to make a man and this time they would use corn. And so Balam Kitz’e, Balam meaning jaguar in that language, took red corn, Balam Akab took black corn, Balam Ik’ took yellow corn and Balam Majakutaj took white corn.
“The red corn people were planted in the east and were symbolized by the rising sun. Red corn is very rich in nutrients. People who live on red corn alone can grow to be two or two and a half meters tall. The Europeans give us no market for red corn, and so people do not grow it today. They do this to keep us small. But they are fools. We are the red corn; it is in our spirit. The red corn represents our blood which is our spirit. It is our heart. We are strong because the red corn is rich and strong. Its taste is too strong for the weak.
“The black corn people were planted in the west. Black corn is very strong and vigorous. It resists drought and can live for long periods without water. At one time, our Aztec brothers were kept alive on their life journey by the gift of the black corn. The black race is like this, it can be removed from its roots and will remain strong and vigorous when others would wither and die. They sustain not only themselves but also the people around them. The black corn represents the sacred water that purifies the earth. It does not need as much water because the water is in it.
“The yellow corn people were planted in the south. Yellow corn is very good medicine and contains many healing properties. The silk of yellow corn is very good for urine problems and back pain, and can be used for dropsy and prostatitis, and kidney stones. In the south we find many healing plants and roots. The yellow race uses many of the same natural medicines and healing with needle pricks like the Maya. The yellow corn represents the fluid which is the life force of the earth, and it is the life force of the bark and the leaves and the fruits, the flowers and pollen and the nectar that we take as the earth’s gift of medicines to us.”
The Mopan woman looked right through us, not changing the tolerant smile on her lips.
“The white corn people were planted in the north. White corn is pretty to look at, but is empty. It can be sweet and will fill you up, but it only gives you diarrhea. It will not strengthen you, yet it will grow like a weed and crowd out the other corns growing next to it. It will wither and die in drought, but come back twice as abundant when the rain comes the next season. The white corn people are like that. They are overwhelming in numbers, but each one has a weakness inside, a place where the spirit has to struggle in order to grow.”
The woman with the pestle was smiling but was not looking up. Some people had come in, one on a wooden crutch, and were waiting for the sister.
Jo and I walked back toward the town through the pine forest. This was the same trail I had taken when I was returning from the cave.
“Are you feeling kind of like we’ve been slapped?”
Jo smiled and rubbed her cheek with her hand.