Wakanda Forever Through the Eyes of an Indigenous Maya Cinema Lover
Erick Chuc, a former Na’atik student and current Na’atik teacher from the nearby Maya community of X-Pichil, is a big cinema fan. He has always dreamed of working in film, and loves the Marvel series of superhero films. As a passionate believer in the importance of his native Maya language and culture, seeing his community represented in a series of films he cares about has been very special. He has written about the impact the film has had both on him and on the Maya community here on the Yucatán peninsula.
Erick Chuc
The Maya can claim to have been one of the greatest civilizations in the history of mankind. The contributions of our Maya culture to the fields of astronomy, science, agriculture, medicine, and mathematics and more have had a huge impact on the world. In the same way, the Maya culture is one of the most visible cultural representations of Mexico worldwide and has consequently had an impact on media portrayals of the region’s history, particularly in audiovisual form. It is rare, however, that Maya characters or depictions have been permitted to express themselves in their own language, with the notable exception of Mel Gibson’s 2006 film Apocalypto. Now, more than 15 years later, the Maya community has once again been surprised and delighted to find representation on the big screen, with Marvel Studios taking inspiration from the Maya culture to adapt the new characters in their big money feature Black Panther Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther Wakanda Forever is a recent Marvel Studios film directed by Ryan Coogler that tells the story of Shuri and the inhabitants of Wakanda trying to continue their lives after the death of King T'Challa as interpreted by Chadwick Boseman. This is a spectacular film full of action, drama, and fantasy. However, it featured an unexpected element that caught the world’s attention. Namor the Submariner and his tribe of Atlanteans would be depicted for the first time on the big screen. Namor was one of the first-ever superheroes in Marvel comics history, along with the human torch, created in 1939. However, in the film, Namor is the villain of the story and rather than being based on the classic Greek Atlantean myth, Namor and his Atlantean tribe are instead based on the Mesoamerican Maya culture.
For Maya people this change created great expectations for the film, as it was exciting to know that our culture was going to be represented in a very different kind of film than it had in the past. One of the first questions we wanted to know the answer to was: Will the characters in the movie speak Maya?
The answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’. The film features the characters using Yucatec Maya in such a great way that many people, myself included, were both surprised and delighted. For this reason, I would like to share my thoughts about the impact of this film in the following three sections:
First, how the Mayan language is represented in the film;
Second, how the elements of the Maya culture are depicted; and finally,
About how watching the representation of the Maya culture and listening to the actors speaking Maya created what I have named ‘The Talokan Effect’ (Talokan is the fictional city of Namor).
THE MAYAN LANGUAGE IN BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER
The Maya used in the film is Yucatec Maya, a variation of the Maya still spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula. According to the actors, they had a native Mayan language coach, Josue Maychi, who is also an actor. Maychi guided them to practice and learn their lines in Maya. This was crucial because the Talokanees, as the tribe is known in the film, only speak in Maya throughout the entire movie. This element was something that surprised the entire world because it is rare to see so much of this kind of Hollywood movie spoken in a language other than English, especially a non-European language.
As a result, in most of the scenes where the Talokanees are involved, only Maya is heard by the audience. This created a lot of excitement for the Maya people who saw the film. It created a feeling of happiness when they saw and heard the dialogue in Maya in a Hollywood movie again, especially in a superhero movie, as it is unique. Hearing the first dialogue in Maya, Xene'ex, caught us by surprise, and we got goosebumps because of the overwhelming emotion. Also, discovering new words in Maya like:
Warrior: Ajba'ate’el for men and Ixba'ate’el for women
Princess: Ixmejen ajao
Wisdom or a scientific skill: Ixmiatso
“Imperiux Rex”, the battle cry of Namor: Ahauil Ajawta’e
Hearing these expressions in Maya made the experience emotional, educational, and extraordinary.
The language also has a great presence in one of the sequences where Namor tells the story of his people. But the element that stands out from that scene is that the people who are playing the Shaman and Namor’s mother are native Maya speakers. Listening to the fluency and the Yucatec Maya accent in the scene was of vital importance as that sequence took the spectators by surprise and filled us with joy, emotion, and pride. Seeing native speakers in a film, and much better, hearing them speak their native language, their first language, on the big screen was powerfully emotional.
The language was essential in the film, something that is appreciated from a cultural and emotional point of view. Hearing professional actors speaking in Maya was very exciting and emotional. Listening to Tenoch Huerta, who speaks the most Maya of the entire cast, giving a war speech in Maya, was surprising. Mabel Cadena deserves great recognition for speaking very clearly, she was surprisingly fluent, I could almost think that she is a native speaker. Alex Livinalli gives the toughest, most intimidating dialogue in Maya I’ve ever heard. Josue Maychi and María Mercedes Coroy, both native speakers of Maya, do a spectacular job in the participation they have in the film, but above all, they show us that even coming from an Indigenous community if you work so hard for your dreams you can achieve them. It filled us with so much pride to watch them on the big screen in a movie that everyone will watch.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE MAYA CULTURE IN THE FANTASY OF THE FILM
The film borrows some elements of the Maya culture, using them as inspiration for the Talokanees, the inhabitants of the oceans:
THE CONCH: The conch shell is an important piece of the Maya culture as they were considered precious. It represents the connection with the birth of people, and also a direct connection with the sea. It has been used as a piece of ornament in accessories that are used day-to-day as headbands, earrings, bracelets, and pieces of decoration in their clothing during ceremonies and even at sacrifices that were held many years ago. Also, it has been used as a musical instrument, a type of trumpet that announced the hours, helped organize the crowds, and made the call to ceremonies. It was also used in battles. In the film, the conch has a brief appearance, and it is mentioned that its use is to call Namor, blowing and placing it in the water, and Namor would be there.
CENOTES: The cenotes of Maya culture represent the entry of the underworld that the Maya knew under the name of Xibalbá. They are also home to the elves known as the Aluxes as well as the great source of water for people living in areas where there were no rivers. In the film, this takes an important role, as they are the access and the way to get to Talokan, the adaptation of Atlantis. Talokan is the city of the Talokanees, the tribe of Namor. It is a beautiful cavern full of stalactites, characteristic of the cenotes of the Maya region.
Cenotes are a stunning geological feauture unique to the peninsula.
JADE: Jade is a precious stone in Maya culture and because of its hardness was associated with immortality, eternity, and power. Jade was very valuable to the Maya people, even more valuable than gold. This element is part of the accessories of the Talokanee characters in the film, such as the earrings, the necklaces, or the same spear of the antagonist covered with this precious stone. Jade’s symbolism is related to immortality and power. It has characteristics that the character of Namor has since it is the character that carries more elements of jade because he is considered the god of the Talokaneees, he is the most powerful of his people and the one who has lived the longest of them all.
THE TRADITIONAL HOUSES OF THE MAYA COMMUNITIES: This type of housing still exists today and represents the traditional Maya homes. They are houses made of vertical, thin, wooden rods and tree trunks as the frame, with the roofs made of metal or cardboard sheets or thatch of huano leaves. In the film, there are quite a few houses made from these materials, and it was quite exciting to see our small, traditional wooden houses in a superhero movie.
K'UK'ULKAN: The feathered serpent god, K’uk’ulkan, is depicted in the film by Namor. The god K'uk'ulkan is one of the most representative and the most important in the Maya culture as it represents the beginning of life. In the film, this aspect is also taken and adapted, because in the story Namor is the one who starts a new life at the sea and represents the beginning of a new life for his people, is who gave the sun to his people and is who protects them from the outside.
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS: Additional elements from the Maya culture that were also presented in the film are the use of the hammock, household items and handmade tortillas. Hammocks remain an essential part of Maya culture as most people still sleep in hammocks rather than beds. Also, chúuj were used in the film. In Maya, the chúuj is a natural canteen made out of a dried jicara plant used to transport water. In a small scene, we can see how some local women are making tortillas by hand in the background in what is known in Spanish as candela, or an open fire pit, in English. It is a very small detail but is very significant and characteristic of this area. The image of women making tortillas by hand is something that has both existed in the past and is still present nowadays in the Maya communities. This is an image that fills us with nostalgia, great memories, and much joy.
THE TALOKAN EFFECT
To me, this ‘Effect’ means that after watching the film, rather than discussing the film in Spanish, I wanted to continue speaking Maya with everyone around me in normal conversation. All of this, combined with my emotions and reactions I experienced while watching the movie as a film-loving, Maya-speaking local of a Maya community in Quintana Roo was unique, exciting and emotional.
The feeling that the film leaves me with is pride and a huge sense of honor of being part of the Maya culture. Seeing that my language and culture have been depicted on the big screen in a superhero movie like Black Panther Wakanda Forever is a big surprise that was not expected. However, what stands out most about this film is the effect it has on the Maya-speaking people who still hide that aspect of their lives. I hope that this movie can be a great example to feel proud of our Indigenous roots and rather than hiding it, we embrace it.
The film comes at a great time when the Maya culture is becoming recognized worldwide, at a time when people no longer have to deny their Indigenous origins and at a time of tolerance and acceptance is more commonplace. The effect of the film is to enhance the pride and satisfaction of belonging to an ancestral culture that is still alive today.
Many Maya-speaking people at the end of the movie began to use and practice more of the Maya that they practiced only with their grandparents. Teenagers who know Maya but hardly speak it began to resume their practice in this language.
To conclude, it is important to mention that the Mayan language and culture will reach the eyes, ears, and knowledge of young children around the world, especially children who live in the Maya areas and who will see in this film that their language, their culture is represented in a great action, fantasy film. That it preserves real elements such as language, native people, and the characteristic elements of culture that they will be very pleased to watch on the screen. Children will realize that the Yucatec Mayan language is still spoken today and that it is possible to learn and practice it with native speakers. Children, teens, and adults will see that there is a culture that has stood the barrier of time and is still alive and that they must be proud to belong to this great ancient culture: The Maya Culture.
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