Tsotsil writer presents her book ‘Ixbalam-ek’ in native language

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chis. The Tsotsil writer, Ruperta Bautista, the first woman from indigenous peoples to write a novel, considered that the 2024 Indigenous Literatures of America Prize that she recently received can contribute to “opening the way for other women to publish” in their mother tongue.

“The award is recognizing the work of women and men from indigenous peoples not only in Mexico but in Latin America and that is why it is very important,” she said when interviewed at the end of the presentation of her book. Ixbalam-ek´ (‘Estrella jaguar’), with which he won the award.

“It is an award that I did not expect, it was a surprise. The book is about death. I focus it on the two types of death that I conceive: the natural death that everyone is going to go through and the one that I consider is not natural, but imposed, violent.”

He added: “This is what I address and particularly in the case of women who I consider that the moment of their death has not arrived, but for some reason they died, for example, such as in internal displacement whose conditions are hostile and they have no conditions to assist the doctor and die. “That is not a natural death because they die because of the situation in which they live.”

Originally from the municipality of Huixtán, Bautista expressed that “for a woman from indigenous peoples there are many difficulties in carrying out any type of activity. In itself, for an indigenous woman – I use the word woman from indigenous peoples – it is difficult, but not impossible. “One has to do everything possible to set goals.”

-Did the Zapatista uprising of 1994 represent a boost for writing in indigenous languages?

-It is not only literature in native languages ​​that promoted the armed uprising, but it was the watershed for several things, it opened doors. As (the writer, Alejandro) Aldana said, it is not a government job. It was like saying: it’s time, we have to do it.

He pointed out that writing Ixbalam-ek´which is available in Spanish and Tsotsil, took her 11 years, but “I feel satisfied to have achieved the novel because I achieved it was a personal challenge that I set for myself and in the same book there are several approaches for the reader.”

He explained: “The book is based on a thought from us as indigenous peoples; It is one of the most important aspects that it can contribute. Being a first novel, it can motivate other people from indigenous peoples to reconstruct our history because that is also part of one of the objectives of the book in which there are no phrases or names in Spanish, all the names of the characters are in Tsotsil or Mayan ancient”.

The writer Alejandro Aldana, who participated in the presentation of the work over the weekend at the San Cristóbal Museum (Musac), directed by the creator Emilio Gómez Ozuna, said that “literature written from the perspective of the native peoples of “Chiapas is experiencing a moment of splendor.”

He pointed out that Ixbalam-ek´Ruperta’s first novel that appeared in 2023, is an “unquestionable” text; On the one hand, it is the first novel in literature in native languages ​​written by a woman, and on the other, we have an exploration of the Mayan world from its times of splendor.”

He continued: “The prose that the author achieves is built from the use of different musical measures. The short sentence predominates with the rigor it demands, the rhythm is contained, the ideas are expressed in a few words, it closes circles of meaning in very little narrative space. In the same way, it uses subordinate phrases that are supported by what is being said; but also in the musicality of the text.”

He argued that “the structure breaks the traditional forms of Western narrative, especially that of the 19th century. He did not settle for a linear story, full of insubstantial dialogue; It must be said, it has become not a form, but a format of the present narrative in native languages. No, Ruperta resorts to fragmented history, and masterfully assumes the difficulties that this entails.”

He stressed that “we are facing a very important novel, for its aesthetic characteristics as well as for its contribution to narrative in indigenous languages.”

Fabiola Poblete, professor of history, who also participated in the presentation, under the moderation of the Tsotsil writer, Mikel Ruiz, said that “the writing of a novel by an indigenous woman not only enriches the literary panorama, but also contributes to creating bridges of intercultural communication and to focus attention on the perspective of those who build worlds through the pen.”

He said that “the book is built in two parts, since it is a bilingual edition: in Tsotsil and in Spanish, which is also suggestive, since you can do a ‘dynamic’ reading that goes from Tsotsil to Spanish or vice versa, which also It can be enriched because the text includes a glossary of terms that help to know the meaning of the large number of words in Tsotsil, Tseltal or ancient Mayan that appear interspersed in the text written in Spanish.”