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The Men of Corn
Part I
The creation
One of the most representative works of Mexican muralism in Yucatan is on the walls of the main restaurant of the Hotel Mayaland, located at the heart of the pre-Hispanic city of Chichén Itzá. The mural's name is precisely "The Men of Corn".
This artistic painting, made between 1949 and 1950, refers to the Popol Vuh – the sacred book of the Maya – It is inspired by the creation of the third man by the Mayan gods who inhabit the illuminated celestial lagoons.
The supreme gods of the Maya, Tepeu, and Gucumatz lived in celestial lakes surrounded by peace and clarity in the middle of the universe. The holy book of Popol Vuh begins its reading with the legend:
"There were no persons, animals, birds, fish, crabs, trees, rock, hollow, canyon, jungle, or forest. There was only the sky; the face of the earth was not clear. Only an isolated sea stands under all the sky. There is nothing at all, nor a single thing stirs. Everything is black under the sky".
Both gods created the earth and successively day and night. They created the mountains and valleys and the animals to whom they gave them land to live in.
They ordered the animals to worship them, but they only emitted grunts, trills, and many other sounds, so gods condemned them to be devoured and prowl the mountains, and then gods created man to exalt them.
After two failed attempts to create men, first of clay and then of wood, without getting them to worship them, they created a third man made of corn.
"Their flesh made of yellow and white corn; the man's arms and legs made of corn dough that entered the flesh of our fathers, and then four men were created." (Chapter 1 of the Popol Vuh).
According to Popol Vuh, the world emerged on the date corresponding to August 13, 3114 B.C. (4 Ahaw, 8 Cumku of the Mayan calendar).
