Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

esettled with Gertrudes’s brother in Succotz, a Maya village alongside the
Mopan River. There, Nicanor built a simple thatched house and planted
corn to feed his family.
But soon Nicanor stopped caring for the fields or his wife and son. He
began returning home late at night, often with other women. He’d pull
Gertrudes out of bed by the hair, kick her around the floor, and force her to
sleep under the stove, while he made love to another enchanted woman in
their marriage bed.
Nicanor began charging large sums of money in Succotz to perform his
evil spells. On occasion, he also cured a sick person using medicinal plants
from the surrounding forests.
Young Elijio asked to learn about the plants but his father refused. “You
have too much blood,” Nicanor told him gruffly. “When you are older I
may teach you, but not now.”
At the age of nine, Elijio was put to work helping Uncle Isaac with his
milpa, or field of corn, beans, and pumpkins. He was paid in corn, beans,
and pumpkins, which kept his family fed. By the time he was thirteen,
Elijio had secured his own piece of land from the village mayor, who felt
sorry for him and Gertrudes.
The boy grew healthy and abundant crops. He was a good farmer
because he had a natural love of plants and tended to his corn as if it were a
personal friend. As is the old Maya custom, he showed his gratitude to his
corn by saying prayers before he chopped down their stalks at harvest.
Through plants he found peace and escaped the sadness of his violent home.
He wanted peace for his mother as well. Late one night when Elijio was
fifteen, he lay awake, waiting for Nicanor to return home. His father kicked
down the front door, crashing it against the wall. As Nicanor lunged for
Gertrudes with ready fists, Elijio jumped out of bed and knocked his father
to the floor. He forced a knee into Nicanor’s chest and pressed the blunt
side of a machete blade against his neck. Nicanor looked up in terror,
twisting and groaning on the floor. Elijio shrieked, “I will kill you if you
ever lay a cruel hand on my mother again! Sin or not, father, I will kill
you!”
After that, Gertrudes was never beaten again.
Elijio labored to become an expert farmer. His beans were prized, and
he traveled to another village in the mountains, San Antonio, to trade for
leather, seeds, and chocolate.