Transcript

Hello my name is Naufus Ramirez-Figueroa.

A lot of the sculptures in the performance, especially the pieces that are jars and vases, they are taken directly from the archeological finds that were hastily done right before the archeological site was flooded. Kawinal is a, well in its last installment was post-classic Maya site, although it might have been started in the pre-classic. But it belongs to a series of twelve archeological sites that are now under the Chixoy dam. This area in general is called greater Kawinal. And part of the interest of the archeologist who was given access to it right before it was flooded, he was interested in the suburban relationship that different communities had to Kawinal. And the domesticity or the living quarters of these people.

Kawinal is not a very well-known Maya site but it is quoted when people talk about Maya, how the Maya lived and how Maya made neighborhoods. So this brought together for me the everydayness of this place which also in a way made it sadder. Because I thought about also the everydayness of the people whose homes were taken away and the descendants of the people of this archeological site.