Discarded Pages: Araceli Cab Cumí, Maya Poet and Politician

Introduction: A Maya Poet and Politician, Araceli Cab Cum

Introduction A Maya Poet and Politician, Araceli Cab Cumí  Leaning against the wall of her grandparents’ abandoned home, Araceli gazes past me, and my camera, perhaps to a middle distance of memory. Fleetingly a quieter Araceli replaces the talkative, outgoing politician. As she looks beyond me, I wonder why she has such a thoughtful, somber expression ? The moment passes and I never know. Yet at seventy-five Araceli Cab Cumí has had an eventful and unusual life upon which to reflect. 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 were she and her husband lived, reared two children, and where she still resides. Her hometown is an hour’s bus ride south of Mérida, the capital and largest city of Yucatán state. 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.2 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.3 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,  introduction 2 Araceli Cab Cumí at former home of her grandparents. introduction 3 and personal narratives. Many of the political speeches and position papers she has delivered in the Yucatecan State Congress or at other political events. Her essays, poetry, and personal narratives, however, stored in folders placed in a bookshelf by her kitchen, were unread by anyone other than Araceli until she and I began this book. Meeting Araceli Cab Cumí In 993 Araceli Cab Cumí was serving her final year as a congresswoman in the Yucatecan State Congress. As a congressional representative Araceli was part of the political resurgence of Yucatecan women notable in the early 990s—a resurgence from which they have never retreated very far.4 In Yucatán during this time women held the three most important state offices: governor, Dulce Maria Sauri de Riancho; mayor of Mérida, Ana Rosa Payan Cervera; and chief justice of the State Supreme Court, Ligia Cortez Ortega. Such an obvious presence of women in powerful political positions was unusual for Mexico where men have long dominated the public political arena. Although Mexican women have a long history of political engagement , their election to public office has only become more common in the past twenty years.5 Convinced that women’s increasingly greater public political presence represented a sea change in Yucatecan politics, my longtime friend and colleague Dra. Beatriz Castilla Ramos and I began a project that soon led us to meet Araceli Cab Cumí.6 During the summer of 993, as we made our way around the political circles of Yucatán interviewing women activists and politicians, our colleague Dr. Othón Baños Ramírez suggested we interview Congresswoman Cab Cumí.7 Having met the congresswoman during his own work among the rural farmers of Yucatán, Othón regarded her as a thoughtful and capable politician, especially for someone with her modest formal education. He generously set up an interview with her for us. On the day of the interview Othón and I met Araceli in her office in the Yucatecan Congress.8 The interview with her was in its duration and intensity like few others we had that summer. Once we had seated ourselves in Araceli’s unadorned office, Othón explained that I was an anthropologist who wished to interview her. He got no further than that. Araceli began an enthusiastic and prideful lecture about Maya stories, legends, and language. I found it impossible to interrupt her. introduction 4 After some ten minutes Araceli hesitated briefly, appearing to collect...