<text>These animal stories are from Tales and Legends of the Q'anjob'al Maya (Yax:Te' Press, copyright 1995; reprinted here with permission). This collection is 41 tales, fables, myths and legends of the Q'anjob'al-speaking people of the Cuchumat'n Mountains of Guatemala. There are animal stories, strange encounters with Lords of the Hill, tales of deceit and wonder, and origin legends.
There may be as many as 10,000 Q'anjob'al Maya, descendants of those who built the greatest ancient civilization of Central America, scattered throughout the United States and Canada, especially in Southern California and Florida, refugees from the terror in Guatemala. </text>
<cite>
<author>
<name>Fernando Peñalosa,
<text>a Q'anjob'al Maya from Guatemala, who presently resides in Los Angeles. You might say he's an elder, although we are the same age, 70. Young people simply do not know the stories, or at least are not able to tell them. I translated the tales from Q'anjob'al Maya into Spanish and English.
A trilingual edition of the tales was first published by the Mayan self-help organization IXIM in Los Angeles, but this volume has long been out of print. I am now planning to get out a bilingual (Q'anjob'al-Spanish) edition for distribution primarily in Guatemala and in the refugee camps in Mexico, and have several other such collections in the works. " </text>
</quote>
</cite>
<text> Sr. Peñalosa may be able to provide some other traditional Mayan tales, which I'll include here, though much of his effort is devoted to translating Mayan literature into Spanish, rather than English, since that's most useful to the large Mayan population of Mexico and Meso-American countries.
A catalog of Mayan publications is available from: </text>
<contact>
<name> Fernando Peñalosa Yax Te' Press</name>
<address>
<street> 3520 Coolheights Drive </street>
<city>Rancho Palos Verdes</city>
<state>CA</state>
<zip>90275-6231</zip>
</address>
<tel>Phne (310) 377-7603</tel>;
<fax>(310) 377-8763 </fax>
</contact>