The Mayans have long fascinated modern readers with their complex written language, sophisticated mathematics, and advanced astronomy. In Guatemala in 1558, a young Mayan K'iche' man transcribed what he called a sacred book that "we can no longer see." This was the Popul Vuh, the Mayans' written account of the creation of the universe, the gods and demi-gods who occupied that universe, and the story of how man was created by them. Furthermore, it traced, generation by generation, the lineage of the Mayan lords down to their imprisonment and torture by the Spanish invaders. Considered the Mayan bible, the Popol Vuh appears here in an authoritative, gorgeously illustrated version by noted Maya anthropologist Victor Montejo, who has captured all the drama and excitement of one of the world's great creation stories.

Un libro sagrado del pueblo maya k'iche' sobrevivio a la destruccion de los escritos de la cultura maya por religiosos espanoles. El Popol Vuj fue transcrito en el alfabeto latino en 1558 y traducido al espanol en 1701. La narracion traza las tradiciones y los origenes mitologicos del pueblo k'iche' ademas de contar su historia, su cronologia y la sucesion de generaciones de reyes y senores hasta la conquista. Contado para ninos por el eminente antropologo maya, Victor Montejo.

Elilal, exile, is the condition of thousands of Mayas who have fled their homelands in Guatemala to escape repression and even death at the hands of their government. In this book, Victor Montejo, who is both a Maya expatriate and an anthropologist, gives voice to those who until now have struggled in silence--but who nevertheless have found ways to reaffirm and celebrate their Mayaness.

Voices from Exile is the authentic story of one group of Mayas from the Kuchumatan highlands who fled into Mexico and sought refuge there. Montejo's combination of autobiography, history, political analysis, and testimonial narrative offers a profound exploration of state terror and its inescapable human cost.

The Bird Who Cleans the World and other Mayan Fables is collection of Jakaltek Mayan folktales, first told to the author by his mother and the elders of his Guatemalan village. They deal with the themes of creation, nature, mutual respect, and ethnic relations and conflicts. Told here for the first time in English and illustrated with Mayan images, these stories and fables speak eloquently of an ancient culture, at once preserving its history and recreating its tradition.