On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey

BOOK REVIEW- FIVE STARS

On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux

This journey in Mexico by Paul Theroux is an up to the minute look away from glitter and glitz to their dirty neighbor’s wall running from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico plus a trip down seldom traveled country roads deep into the country.

I came away deeply impressed with the author's perceptive observations and magnificent personal profiles, political insights, and culinary regional idiosyncrasies all honed with extensive years of traveling.

The book is worthy of more than five stars because the author has something to say and says it well.

I have lived in Mexico over thirty five years, traveled the country extensively, and written two books on the subject...trust me this book is better than good.

Excerpts:

The fat cats and petrocrats in Mexico City, thirty listed billionaires, including the seventh-richest man in the world, Senor Carlos Slim, who together have more money than every other Mexican combined. But the campesinos in certain states in southern Mexico, such as Oaxaca and Chiapas, in terms of personal income, are poorer than their counterparts in Bangladesh or Kenya, languishing in an air of stagnant melancholy on hillsides without topsoil, but with seasonal outbursts of fantastical masquerade to lighten the severities and stupefactions of village life. Famine victims, desperadoes, and voluptuaries, all more or less occupying the same space, and that vast space, that Mexican landscape, squalid and lush and primal and majestic.

Mexican hospitality to gringos is in ironic contrast to the present ubiquity of Mexicans who are demonized and fenced in, stamped as undesirable, considered suspect, and unwelcome in America.

It’s a mistake to disclose that you’re passionate about going anywhere, because everyone will give you ten reasons for not going, they want you to stay home and eat meatloaf and play with a computer, which is what they’re doing.

The eagles soar in the sky alone, but we Mexicans share the land with snakes.

NAFTA, he said, was a tool of the sort of globalization that he characterized as a sinister power grab by international corporations to subvert governments all over the world. “The world’s new masters have no need to govern directly. National governments take on the role of running things on their behalf. This is what the new order means, unification of the world into one single market. States are simply enterprises with managers in the guise of governments, and the new regional alliances bear more of a resemblance to shopping malls than to political federations.

St. Augustine, Florida - Mayan Connection and the Conch Horn

The tradition of blowing a conch horn as been passed down over the centuries from Florida’s first inhabitants. 

 

John M. Grimsrud blowing a conch horn.

The horn pictured is of a “roller” or not fully matured conch shell; these produce the lowest-shrillest sounds. The beauty of these horns for boaters is their extreme loudness and simplicity (weatherproof with no moving parts or anything to recharge).

 

The prehistoric Timucuan people built mounds along Florida’s shores.  On the northeast coast of Florida, twenty-two large mounds made of stacked oyster shell were visible from seven miles out to sea and marked on sailing charts. These ancient mounds had a height of more than fifty feet and each covered two acres. Early seagoing traders and explorers used these mounds as aids to navigation .In 1917 twenty-one of these mounds were removed to be used for road fill. Today only one mound, Turtle Mound, remains.  It is located 9 miles south of New Smyrna Beach within Canaveral National Seashore.

The pyramid building Chontal Maya, who evolved from the Olmec of Mexico, used conch horns as signaling devices. They could have easily passed their inventive skills and more on to their many ports of call. It is not clear exactly where all of the innovative Mayan techniques were acquired or developed, but they had a huge impact on the Americas.

Since pre-Hispanic times, the seagoing Chontal Maya of Tabasco, Mexico, using large trading canoes ranged as far as Panama, Florida, Cuba, the Caribbean Islands, and Veracruz.  They understood celestial navigation and employed sophisticated navigational aids that included lighted range markers. The Maya excavated canals to connect the sea with inland river systems, thus extending commerce and spreading their knowledge.

Blowing a conch horn is the mark of a bona fide Florida sailor.

Learn about John Grimsrud’s connections to Florida and the Maya of Yucatan in his books:

And his latest:

Yucatan for Travelers, Valladolid to Tulum

   
More recommended reading:

More books  by John M. Grimsrud: 

Excerpt from The Maya by Michael D. Coe:

 “ Yucatan was the greatest producer of salt in Mesoamerica…commerce was cornered by the Chontal Maya, or Putun, such good seafarers that Thompson called them “the Phoenicians of Middle America.” …their great canoes put into exchange goods with the island Maya…for they had much to exchange- especially cacao and feathers of tropical birds for copper tools and ornaments…” 

Xcanchakan - The first Spanish land grant of 1542 in Yucatan, Mexico

This 1840 engraving by Fredrick Catherwood is from John L. Stephens classic book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan depicting the hacienda of Xcanchakan as they saw it.

Excerpted from Incidents of Travel in Yucatan by John L. Stephens, 1843; 

The hacienda, or rather rancho, of San Joaquin, on which the ruins of Mayapan lie scattered... It forms part of the great hacienda of Xcanchakan…Xcanchakan; It was nearly dark when we reached the stately hacienda of Xcanchakan, one of the three finest in Yucatan, and containing nearly seven hundred souls.  The house is perhaps one of the best in the country, and being within one day's ride of the capital, [Mérida] and accessible by calesa, it is a favorite residence of its venerable proprietor. The whole condition of the hacienda showed that it was often subject to the master's eye, and the character of that master may be judged of from the fact that his major domo, the same who was attendant upon us, had been with him twenty-six years. I have given the reader some idea of a hacienda in Yucatan, with its cattle-yard, its great tanks of water and other accessories. All these were upon a large and substantial scale, equal to any we had seen; and there was one little refinement in their arrangement, which, though not, perhaps, intended for that purpose, could not fail to strike the eye of a stranger. The passage to the well was across the corridor, and, sitting quietly in the shade, the proprietor could see every day, passing and re-passing, all the women and girls belonging to the estate…

This photo is from the book Yucatán’s Magic - Mérida Side Trips. It depicts the stately first Spanish land grant or encomienda of 1542 as it can be seen today. Read the rest of this fascinating story in Yucatán’s Magic - Mérida Side Trips and discover how you can visit this truly unique place with no tour buses or trinket shops.

Yucatán’s Magic -Mérida Side Trips is available in paperback and digital editions worldwide.

Other recommended reading:

Incidents of Travel in Yucatan  1840-42 by John L. Stephens (two volumes). A well written must read documentary for anyone interested in colonial Yucatan, Mayan ruins, Mexican history, and adventure travel. These books are in print and also available for free from Project Gutenberg.

A short bio. of John Lloyd Stephens:

John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. 

At age of 13 he enrolled at Columbia College in New York City, graduating at the top of his class. After working as a lawyer for 8 years, in 1834 he traveled through Europe, the Middle East, and Egypt. He wrote several books about his travels and explorations.

In 1838 he was commissioned ambassador to Central America and published the books, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán in 1839.

In 1840 he returned to Yucatan with draftsman Fredrick Catherwood where they did extensive research and recorded many Mayan ruins previously undiscovered.

In 1843 Stephens published Incidents of Travel in Yucatan in two volumes. It was illustrated with 120 high detail engravings by Fredrick Catherwood.

In 1849 he headed the Panama Railroad Company that was a key component in the construction of the Panama Canal. He died in New York City at age 46 of complications from a tropical disease.

Links:

Project Gutenberg –Incidents of Travel in Yucatan: Volume One

Project Gutenberg -Incidents of Travel in Yucatan: Volume Two

Yucatán’s Magic –Mérida Side Trips