Discarded Pages: Araceli Cab Cumí, Maya Poet and Politician

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Araceli Cab Cumí Maya Poet and Politician Discarded Pages Kathleen Rock Martín Kathleen Rock Martín is associate professor of anthropology at Florida International University, Miami. Women  Latin America  Literature Araceli Cab Cumí is a contemporary Maya writer, grassroots leader, and political party activist from Mexico. She is also the only indigenous woman to have been elected to the State Congress of Yucatan, serving two terms of office. Discarded Pages is Cab Cumí’s life narrative accompanied by her essays, poems, personal narratives, and political and public policy papers. Titled in honor of Cab Cumí’s earliest writings, which she had thrown away, thinking them of little value, Discarded Pages showcases her expressions and thoughts within the context of her eventful and unusual life. In addition to translations of her work, Cab Cumí’s original Spanish and Yucatec Maya writings are included in the book. Gramsci’s theoretically innovative concept of the “organic intellectual” is used to analyze Cab Cumí’s life and career. The book expands on Gramsci’s original concept to include discussions of gender, new social movements, and the social context in which organic intellectuals labor as activists and thinkers. Throughout Discarded Pages Cab Cumí movingly represents the worldview of a Maya woman seeking to represent other Maya women. jacket photo:© Corbis, Antistock jacket design: Kathleen Sparkes University of New Mexico Press unmpress.com • 800-249-7737 xHSKIMGy340665zv*:+:!:+:! isbn 978-0-8263-4066-5 “Araceli Cab Cumí has lived almost all of her life on the same half block where she was born in Barrio Tres Cruces, Maxcanú, Yucatán, Mexico. The house in which she was born and the one in which she lived with her paternal grandparents are just across the street from the house where she and her husband lived, reared two children, and where she still resides. . . . “Yet the achievements of Araceli Cab Cumí extend beyond the boundaries of her barrio, hometown, state, or nation. In a place and time where women are still underrepresented in partisan politics, indigenous people a rarity, and indigenous women hardly a presence at all, Araceli is a successful longtime Maya woman politician. A grassroots leader and political party activist since 960, she is the only indigenous woman to have ever been elected to the Yucatecan State Congress. She has in fact served two terms in the Congress, once in the mid-970s and again in the early 990s. “But Araceli Cab Cumí is also exceptional because she is a writer. Over the past thirty years she has written the political speeches and position papers expected of a politician, but she has also composed essays, poetry, and personal narratives. She has delivered many of the political speeches and position papers in the Yucatecan State Congress or at other political events. Her essays, poetry, and personal narratives, however . . . , were unread by anyone other than Araceli until she and I began this book.” —from Discarded Pages Discarded Pages  Martín ...