{"product_id":"kidnapped-to-the-underworld-memories-of-xibalba-volume-95-9780816552597","title":"Kidnapped to the Underworld: Memories of Xibalba Volume 95","description":"Víctor Montejo's story recounts the near-death experience of his grandfather, Antonyo Mekel Lawuxh (Antonio Esteban), who fell gravely ill in Guatemala in the late 1920s but survived to tell his family and community what he had witnessed of the afterlife. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Narrated from Antonio's perspective, the reader follows along on a journey to the Maya underworld of Xibalba, accompanied by two spirit guides. Antonio traverses Xibalba's levels of heaven and hell, encountering instructive scenes of punishment and reward: in one chapter, conquistadors are perpetually submerged in a pool of their victims' blood; in another, the souls of animal abusers are forever unable to cross a crocodile-infested river. Infused with memory, the author illustrates Guatemala's unique religious syncretism, exploring conceptions of heaven and hell shared between Catholicism and Indigenous Maya spirituality. In the tradition of both the \u003ci\u003ePopol Vuh\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eDivine Comedy, \u003c\/i\u003e Montejo's narrative challenges easy categorization--this is a work of family history, religious testimony, political allegory, and sacred literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eV?ctor Montejo is professor emeritus of Native American studies at the University of California, Davis. His previous books include \u003ci\u003ePopol Vuh: A Sacred Book of the Maya; Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Identity, Representation, and Leadership; El Q'anil: Man of Lightning; Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History;\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Sean S. Sell is co-editor and translator of \u003ci\u003eChiapas Maya Awakening: Contemporary Poems and Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, and translator of\u003ci\u003e Ch'ayemal nich'nabiletik \/ Los hijos errantes \/ The Errant Children: A Trilingual Edition\u003c\/i\u003e. Sell has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of California, Davis, where he is currently a professor.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Arizona Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50916193403154,"sku":"9780816552597","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_684084cd-e464-4c0f-b3c7-76307435c5fe.jpg?v=1738843394","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/kidnapped-to-the-underworld-memories-of-xibalba-volume-95-9780816552597","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}