The Requerimiento (Latin)
“If you do not do this, however, or resort maliciously to delay,
we warn you that, with the aid of God, we will enter your land
against you with force and will make war in every place and by
every means we can and are able, and we will then subject you
to the yoke and authority of the Church and Their Highnesses.
We will take you and your wives and children and make them
slaves, and as such we will sell them, and will dispose of you
and them as Their Highnesses order. And we will take your
property and will do to you all the harm and evil we can, as is
done to vassals who will not obey their lord or who do not wish
to accept him, or who resist and defy him…” (De las Casas, 1985)
How different history would be today if they instead had read & lived by
“The Golden Rule.”
RELATIONSHIPS
While the three concepts explain the function of the universe,
perhaps more important is how people relate to each other
and all life and how people treat each other as human beings.
It should not actually matter from what tradition these or
similar concepts come from, but rather, whether they are
lived, as opposed to simply spoken about.
In Lak Ech – Panche Be - Hunab Ku
Synthesis
The essence of In Lak Ech-Tu Eres mi Otro Yo is Hunab Ku.
But Hunab Ku is the Great Mystery. To understand it is a
lifelong pursuit. Panche Be can guide people on that journey,
yet, Panche Be, without In Lak Ech will lead to arrogance.
And to know Hunab Ku without In Lak Ech is useless.
All 3 concepts lead to the creation of good human
beings. And the three belong to all of humanity.
Result: Humans as part of Creation – not severed from it
Memory-Memoria
 Missing from the above re what it means to be human
Memory-Memoria
[Creation] Original Stories-Narratives
(Original Instructions)
Where we Come from
How We Got Here
What we are made of
Who we Are
What we live for
Nahuatl Thought: Tezcatlipoca: The Smoking Mirror = memory
Amoxtli Chimalpopoca Codex
Nahua Creation Story
The Legend
of the Suns
The Ants of
Quetzalcoatl
Part I & II
Creation of Human
Beings in Tamoanchan
How maiz came to the
people
Quetzalcoatl, the Ants
& The Gift of Maiz
Maiz, the path of the
Ants & Our New Sun
All peoples/cultures have such stories
Creation of
The Cosmos
Creation of maiz in
Tamuanchan
Creation of
the world
Creation of
human beings
mud, wood - maiz
San Bartolo murals – Nakbe – El Mirador
Documented 2200 years–oral tradition
‘men’
 Creer – imagine (believe)
 Crear - Create
 Hacer – Do (carry out)
men
 To imagine, believe in, and the creation of
our own reality.
 “It’s a power within our psyche.”
 Part of our will.
 (Parasicologia Maya p. 68-69)
In 1990s, a few students/community members imagined Raza
Studies for TUSD
School Board created Hispanic Studies in 1997
Educators changed it to Raza Studies
Became most successful:
k-12 Raza Studies program in nation
Maiz-based philosophy-social justice emphasis
Raza Studies teacher training summer institute
imagined it, believed it, created it, shaped it
K’ochil
 k’ochil: educacion con verdadero sentido de
responsibilidad (Parasicologia Maya, p17)

 K’ochil: education with a true sense of responsibility
(Parasicologia Maya, p17)
 the essence of MAS–TUSD & struggle to defend it,
spread it nationwide. Not an option, but responsibility
k’ochil; carga
 con la cual se nace y se muere, sin que nada ni
nadie pueda redimir de tal responsibilidad de sus
actos, y no hay que olvidar aquello de que la
consciencia es fiscal y juez tampoco lo de
‘con la vara que mides seras medido…’
 one is born with and dies with this responsibility.
Nothing or no one is able to shirk from it. We cannot
forget that our conscience is just and prudent:
“By the ruler we measure, we too will be
measured.”
k’ochil
 parte de personalidad filosofica y espiritual;
reflejo de esa Energia Inteligente.
 This carga or responsibility makes up our
philosophical and spiritual personality; a
reflection of that intelligent energy.
K’ochil
Perhaps this is the
reason why people
who fight for, and
struggle for, human
rights, say they are
compelled to do so.
That it is a duty.
A sacrifice
Not a choice,
but a responsibility.
Appears to be the approximate meaning of K’ochil
et p’iz
 ley de compensacion y responsabilidad.
 The law of compensation and responsibility:
 Cause-and-effect.
 ( streets: what comes around goes around)
 Our measure; they would say that whatever
good or bad a person received depended upon
how each person conducted himself or herself.

Parasicolgia Maya, p42
et p’iz
 No one escapes this law.
 Each person is responsible for how one
thinks, says and does.
 This is one of most important ethics. It is
applicable in life, but also in political
battles (MAS-TUSD)
Yaxche – Baalche
el arbol es el
Ser humano;
el ser humano
es el arbol;
The tree is
the human
being:
the human being
is the tree.
Filosofia-philosophy; without vegetation, there are
no humans & no life. Ecological concept
(Parapsicologia Maya,p79)
Yaxche – baalche
 ‘el pensador maya considera primero el

arbol Yaxche y despues al animal con la
expression baalche; animal, porque sin
vegetales no habrian animales, y asi
llegaron a sentenciar que:
 muerto el ultimo arbol, muerto el
ultimo hombre [ser humano].’
Parasicologia Maya, P141
Yaxche – Baalche
‘The Maya thinker thinks first of the tree
(yaxche) and then the animal with the
expression baalche, because without
vegetation there would be no animals.
That’s how they determined that:
the death of the last tree signifies
the death of the last human being.’

(Parasicologia Maya, P141. )
Yaxche – Baalche
interdependancy
 The tree is the ultimate symbol of life & of creation
‘Ese arbol es el arbol de la vida.’
 Represents vegetation
 If vegetation is destroyed, humans cannot exist
 Understand that relationship between humans &
their environment & all life [forms]
 Ecological balance and interdependency for the
next 7 generations
Synopsis
 ‘The responsibility that we are born with and we
die with (K’ochil) and that is maintained by the law
of compensation called et p’iz, our measure which
determines that according to how a person lives,
good or bad and that yesterday's error will be paid
today and today's error will be paid tomorrow.”
For the Maya mistake turns into a debt. ‘This
leads to the philosophy of in lak ech. You are me
and I am you.’ That is why the philosophy is that
you can receive good and bad.
(Parasicologia Maya, p94)
A challenge
 What responsibility does the MAS community have
in adopting these maiz-based values?
 One can learn them or one can live them… in the
present.
Human rights/Indigenous rights ethos
Adopt a
social justice
& adopt a human
rights ethos
and human rights
language:
UN/OAS
See
‘Outlaw Arizona’
Understand
relationship
to continent &
to the peoples of
Abya Yalla.
Understand
Doctrine of
Discovery &
the 2007 UN
Declaration on
the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples
Responsibility of these ethos
 These thoughts were gifted by elders, who established relationships in
the U.S., including: Domingo Martinez Paredez, Florencio YescasMaestra Angelbertha Cobb, Andres Segura and Tlakaele.
 There is a danger of romanticizing, viewing them through a historical, as
opposed to, contemporary lens.
 Those who adopt them, must accept the responsibility of finding their own
relationship to continent & its original peoples and positioning
themselves relative to the indigenous rights [liberation] movements of this
continent.
A Teaching Opportunity
 Climate permits teaching other maiz–based knowledge,
including Aztec calendar, Popul Vuh, codices & chronicles.
In Tucson, this is considered outside of W. Civilization. MAS
teacher Norma Gonzalez told she can’t teach Aztec Calendar
because it is Mexican history/culture. Horne says she can.
100% of homes have it. 99.9% don’t know how to read it
Raza Contribution

[Lo] Rasquachi (La Chicanada)

Brown Power/Brown is Beautiful

Si se Puede (Dolores Huerta UFW)

Sin Fronteras: We Didn’t Cross the Borders; The borders crossed us!
UNITY
HAND
CLAP

Xicanisma (ChicanismoChicanismo)

Ningun Ser Humano es Ilegal (Bert Corona 1960s)

We Will not Comply!
 Con/Safos
Being & Becoming Human
A Maiz-based Ethos & Philosophy of Life
 Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, Asst. Prof
 MAS - University of Arizona
 520-271-6796
rodrigu7@email.arizona.edu