This being third in the sequence of Martin Prechtel's books that I'd read this year, completion of the triptych brought my understanding to critical mass/tears in view of how much has been lost in Guatemala's entry to the 21st century. However, these writings make it highly probable that the loss is not complete, or unmourned. His books embody the very processes he tells of; for example, his mention of customs which are made to be broken: people's learning the significance of who breaks them, how, and when they are broken or allowed to be broken strengthens the culture.* His own experience of out of sequence initiation illustrates this, but beyond that, the fluidity with which he passes between poetic and humorous storytelling and epilogues in a more philosophical tone invites inner dialogue in the reader. He is well aware of the modern consumer mentality as a ghost layer mimicing an underlying spiritual void, when he taunts the readers at the outset that many will voraciously consume his books and move on, without fulfilment. *This realization is the most important one passed from mentor to initiate in any culture. My mentor at the same period (the 1970's)was a halfway-house worker who realized and taught others that we were not there to enforce a culture on the mentally ill, but rather light-heartedly yet seriously to help them draw the line as to what they could expect to get away with and more importantly, not get away with, in this life, and to plan accordingly. Indigenous music and language being preserved and used in their celebratory (if no longer ritual) uses may be all we have left to work/play with. Prechtel does well to begin his story with his introduction to Mayan music. The depths have not yet been plumbed as far as the role music plays in initiation, since the printed word is not the right medium to convey this. It struck me as wonderful that a Peruvian flute band were playing their hearts out last weekend in Portland, Maine, at the last visit of the Tall Ships- a proper "send-off" to the ghosts of Conquistador navies by a very much alive pre-columbian musical band.
