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Transcription: [01:10:06]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
Yeah that's better...Good afternoon, this is a discussion about the traditional Maya musical instrument called the marimba,
[01:10:16]
which you see one version of here on the left hand side of the stage.
[01:10:23]
Today is a special treat we are going to explore some of the very most traditional music that the Maya play which are is a kind of music that's played for dances
[01:10:35]
but not dances like hoedowns or popular dancing music but devotional dances which are done to act out various dance theater events.
[01:10:51]
We are today a little later going to be talking about the dance of the deer dance, the dance of the deer which has various portions to it.
[01:10:59]
But before that I would like to introduce one of the players who will act as our interviewer his name is Jerónimo Camposeco.
[01:11:10]
He is a Jacaltec Indian from a town in the highlands of Guatemala and like so many of his fellows he has grown up with the marimba
[01:11:27]
not as a special instrument that a few people play for everyone else but an instrument that a very many of the Mayas learned to play from very young.
[01:11:36]
Somewhat similar to the learning to, by the woman, learning of weaving which there is a weaving exhibit right next door to here.
[01:11:44]
So without further ramblings we'll turn right to Jerónimo who will introduce the members of the band.
[01:11:56]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
Uh, good morning. Thank you for doing all of this discussion of our Mayan cultural, and now the aspect is our music
[01:12:08]
and we are going to start to say how the marimba is made, and we have one of the marimba maker with us from the hamlet of Yalaj San Miguel Acatán in the department of Huehuetenango Guatemala.
[01:12:33]
He is a part of a family in this out there. Very few families make marimba, and one of in San Miguel, this is the family--the Gaspar family.
[01:12:49]
And in other town very close to San Miguel, is called Santa Eulalia. We have two families: the Hernandez family and the Niktel family.
[01:13:03]
I cannot interpret what Niktel means, but it's like "Nickolas," I guess. They make marimba also.

[01:13:15]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
So in other words, there are very few families that actually make the marimba, unlike the numerous families that play them.
[01:13:21]
We have the fortune of having a member of one of those families here with us.

[01:13:27]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
This is Gaspar Juan here, and he's going to explain to you how to make marimba.
[01:13:35]
[[applause]]

[01:13:38]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
He speak, we speak Q'anjob'al Mayan language and I am going to ask in Spanish because Don is going to make the interpretation in English.
[01:13:52]
Oh...he is going to speak in in Q'anjob'al. I am going to speak to him in-

[01:13:59]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
Spanish and I'm going to speak to you in English [[laughter]]. Do you follow the-

[01:14:03]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
Bueno, cómo quieres- cómo sientes mejor? Uh, cómo empezaste- we're going to start in Spanish- cómo empezaste aprender la marimba?

[01:14:14]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
How did you learn to-

[01:14:16]
{SPEAKER name="Señor Gaspar"}
Los voy a contar que mi abuelo Gaspar Tomás, pues, cuándo era como, él era como quince años como muchacho, pues, y él empezó a hacer la marimba.
[01:14:27]
Y no hay nadie ingles. El señor, a él no más le saco en su memoria como arreglando la marimba y él empezó.
[01:14:34]
Así vivió el cómo ochenta y tres años y en el mundo él está muerta ahora. Y mi papá Juan Gaspar pues él vive en [[ya?]] ahora y salí de Malacatán y él ase las marimbas. Gracias.
[01:14:46]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
So, he says that his grandfather began making the marimba. From looking at marimbas he figured out how to make one basically. Until he died at the age of eighty-three, he made marimbas.
[01:15:00]
and he taught his son who in turn taught señor Gaspar here.
[01:15:06]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
¿Entonces ustedes aprendieron la marimba con tu papa ahora?
[01:15:12]
{SPEAKER name="Señor Gaspar"}
Sí. Mi papa Juan Gaspar ahora, él vive en Yalaj ahora. Él esta trabajando asiendo de la pura marimba.
[01:15:23]
Él esta trabajando aya en mi tierra ahora donde yo vivo, pues, ya ase días que salí yo, pues yo estoy en Florida. Sí. Es todo.
[01:15:33]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
So, his father is still living there and still making marimbas although Juan Gaspar, of course, now lives in Florida where he and about 800- 600 other members of his community are now exiles.
[01:15:47]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
Pero, ademas de hacer marimba ustedes también trabajan en el campo principalmente.
[01:15:55]
{SPEAKER name="Juan Gaspar"}
También trabajamos en el campo. Lo que cultivamos en Guatemala, cultivamos el maíz, el trigo, la papa. No mas esos tres clases de cultivos se dan en Guatemala donde yo vivo en mi tierra. Sí
[01:16:10]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
So, in addition, he says "I'm also a farmer. We grow corn. We grow um wheat. We grow potatoes. Those are the things that grow in the area that I live."
[01:16:20]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
Entonces usted para ser marimba es como un arte, como sentir felicidad para ser algo. No viven haciendo marimba, si no, viven sembrando la tierra. ¿Es cierto?
[01:16:35]
{SPEAKER name="Juan Gaspar"}
Sí, cultivamos las dos cosas. En el- Cuando se, se hace negocio en la marimba puede ser en los tiempos veranos de diciembre para delante.
[01:16:46]
Es que cuando se llueve bien en Guatemala, pues, en los tiempos de invierno, pues, la gente no, no compra la marimba.
[01:16:53]
En ese tiempo de invierno trabajamos en los campos. Ese es el trabajo que estamos cultivando en Guatemala.
[01:17:02]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
"So, when it rains, in other words, in the rainy season, they'll work on the lands.
[01:17:07]
And when it's dry, that's the time when people will buy marimbas and that's when people will build the marimbas.
[01:17:12]
About half the year is rainy and about half the year is dry."
[01:17:15]
{SPEAKER name="Jerónimo"}
Creo que el tiempo apretamiento vamos a empezar con la marimba de valle. Muchas gracias Gaspar.
[01:17:21]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
Gracias
{SPEAKER name="Juan Gaspar"}
Gracias
[01:17:23]
{SPEAKER name="Don"}
He says, "Thank you everyone. Now we are going to play some music."
[01:17:26]
[[applause]]
[01:17:28]
The music that's going to, that we're going to start with. There are a series of tunes that will be played one after another in what's called "The Deer Dance."
[01:17:37]
Now imagine, if you will, like in the picture we have in the background here, people dressed up in very elaborate costumes.
[01:17:45]
This particular one is a different dance but they are very similar in the basic form and they will dance a series of different dances.
[01:17:53]
Um, although the dance as a whole is called "El Danzo Del Venado" or "The Dance of the Deer," the first song will be, is called, "La Viejita" which is "The Little Old Woman"
[01:18:07]
and there is a little old woman who dances in it, or a man dressed up as a little old woman and then there is el viejito, little old man.
[01:18:15]
Then, there is the Venado itself which is the deer and he has horns and so on
[01:18:20]
and then the monkey. Then the tiger. Then the dog. Then the Mexican. Then the little, the black man and then the uh- what would we call it? The Shepard
[01:18:33]
and then the cowboy and these are all parts of the uh, dance that they uh, act out, it's dance theater.
[01:18:42]
You have a question there?

Transcription Notes:
There are some names on here so obscure that I could barely find confirmation on Google, but I researched to the best of my ability using Castillian phonetics. (editor 2)I'm not super good at spanish so feel free to correct any of the accents and spellings for my Gaspar sections (Editor 3): I believe all was well and the timing was accurate. Just a few grammar areas, and "um", "uh", as a sigh, I believe it is now complete.