Hip-Hop Rappers Promote Mayan Language, Heritage The Associated Press
go to original February 24, 2015

Balam Ajpu - Batz (Tavo Salazar)

A group of Guatemalan musicians is on a mission to breathe life into a pre-Columbian language and heritage through a thoroughly modern genre: hip-hop.

Calling themselves Balam Ajpu, which means Jaguar Warrior or Warrior of Light, they rap in the ancient Mayan Tz'utujil language with the goal of making it cool for kids and teaching them their ancestors' stories and ways.

Their debut album, "Tribute to the 20 Nawuales," or spirits, is set to be released to coincide with the March 20 spring equinox. The musicians rap in both Tz'utujil and Spanish, blending a hip-hop beat with marimba and natural sounds like bird songs and running water.

"Since the time of the (Spanish) invasion, the (Mayan) worldview was persecuted, even almost snuffed out, but now it's returning to life, relying on music and sustaining itself in art," said group member Rene Dionisio, who uses the stage name Tz'utu Baktun Kan. "Our commitment as artists is to rescue the ancient art."

Three years in the making and completed in mid-February, the album's songs pay tribute to each of Guatemala's 22 provinces plus Mexico's Chiapas and Yucatan, encompassing the region where the Mayan civilization hit its apex around A.D. 250 to 950.

Read the rest at Townhall

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