Decolonial Ch’owen Across Abiayala and Turtle Island: Calixta Gabriel Xiquín’s Poetic Invocations of Kaqchikel Spirituality, the Cardinal Points, and Trans-Indigenous Grandmothers

Abstract

Kaqchikel intellectual and ajq’ij (spiritual guide, daykeeper) Calixta Gabriel Xiquín connects Kaqchikel Mayas with other Indigenous activist initiatives throughout the hemisphere through her explicit references to the cardinal points in La cosmovisión maya y las mujeres (2008). As Gabriel Xiquín engages other Indigenous women in Turtle Island and Abiayala, she incorporates Pan-Maya references from the Popol Wuj and invokes female Indigenous spiritual beliefs from other Native American communities, namely the Sioux legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. Grounding her work in Kaqchikel Maya spirituality, Gabriel Xiquín denounces the oppression of Indigenous peoples and their cultures throughout Abiayala and Turtle Island in this decolonial project. The Kaqchikel poet and ajq’ij joins other Native voices in cross-cultural exchanges across the hemisphere, as she looks to the cardinal points to reimagine trans-Indigenous possibilities for ch’owen (dialogue).