Product Description
Handcarved Guatemalan Folk Art, Maximon Resting on His Chair, San Simon Saint 10"x6"x6"
Folk Saint of the Maya. Maximón is said to represent both light and dark, and to be a trickster. He is both a womanizer and a protector of couples
Maximón (pronounced maa-shee-MOHn) is a folk saint venerated in various forms by Maya people of several Guatemalan towns in the highlands of Western Guatemala. His effigies are found in Nahualá and San Jorge La Laguna, and is especially famed in Zunil, San Andrés Itzapa and Santiago Atitlán.
One school of thought associates him with pre-Columbian underworld earth lords, wealthy beings who live inside mountains, associated with black water, the primordial sea from where all life was spawned. He can be bargained with to provide money or economic opportunity to client-petitioners. The Catholic Church feared his great influence and associated him with Judas of Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, which only increased his popularity. The traditional Church also frowns upon the common local requirements of Maximon's caretakers being in a perpetual state of drunkenness and chain-smoking cigars.
